Forex Today: Sentiment could take a turn to the worse amid coronavirus explosion

FXStreet Team FXStreet

Here is what you need to know on Friday, October 23:

The American dollar remained under selling pressure at the end of the week, amid political jitters in the US. Republicans and Democrats have continued to discuss a coronavirus stimulus aid package, reporting progress in discussions and indicating that they were “almost there” on an agreement. At the same time, however, politicians said that chances of a bill being approved before the presidential election are quite slim.

The EUR/USD pair settled at the upper end of its latest range, around 1.1860. Speculative interest ignored coronavirus-related news coming from the EU, as several countries reported record numbers of new cases while the health systems are showing their first signs of stress.

Governments have refused to impose full lockdowns, but are clearly moving in such direction, which will mean a further delay in a possible economic recovery. Things in the US, however, are no better, as the country a record high of 82,668 cases on Saturday. The world reported roughly 490K new contagions on Friday.

GBP/USD finished the week above 1.3000, with limited bullish potential. Investors are cautiously optimistic about Brexit talks after French President Emmanuel Macron has said to the local fishing industry to brace for impact, somehow indicated that a deal is closer.

Commodity-linked currencies held within familiar levels throughout the week, trapped between the broad US dollar’s weakness and lower gold and oil prices. Gold settled around $1,900 a troy ounce while WTI finished the week below $40.00 a barrel.

The US presidential campaign heated up after the final debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. As of today, Biden is still leading national polls, although Trump seems to be cutting off the distance as the date approaches.

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EUR/USD weakens to four-week lows near 1.1750

EUR/USD’s selling pressure is gathering pace now, approaching the area of multi-week troughs in the mid-1.1700s on Thursday. The pair’s intense decline comes on the back of another day of solid gains in the US Dollar, particulalry exacerbated following firm prints from the weekly US labour market.

GBP/USD drops further, hovers around 1.3460

In line with the rest of its risk-linked peers, GBP/USD faces increasing selling pressure and recedes toward the 1.3460 region, or four-week lows, on Thursday. Cable’s persistent pullback comes in response to the continuation of the recovery in the Greenback amid a solid US data and a divided FOMC when it comes to the Fed’s rate path.

Gold clings to daily gains near $5,000

Gold struggles for direction and clings to its daily gains around the key $5,000 mark per troy ounce on Thursday. The precious metal sticks to the bid bias amid reignited geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and despite marked gains in the US Dollar and rising US Treasury yields across the curve.

Ripple slips toward $1.40 despite SG-FORGE tapping protocol for EUR CoinVertible

XRP extends its decline, nearing $1.40 support, as risk appetite fades in the broader market. SG-FORGE’s EUR CoinVertible launches on the XRP Ledger, leveraging the blockchain’s scalability, speed, security, and decentralization.

Hawkish Fed minutes and a market finding its footing

It was green across the board for US Stock market indexes at the close on Wednesday, with most S&P 500 names ending higher, adding 38 points (0.6%) to 6,881 overall. At the GICS sector level, energy led gains, followed by technology and consumer discretionary, while utilities and real estate posted the largest losses.

Injective token surges over 13% following the approval of the mainnet upgrade proposal

Injective price rallies over 13% on Thursday after the network confirmed the approval of its IIP-619 proposal. The green light for the mainnet upgrade has boosted traders’ sentiment, as the upgrade aims to scale Injective’s real-time Ethereum Virtual Machine architecture and enhance its capabilities to support next-generation payments.