Get the weekly Forex forecast for major currency pairs for the week of May 24, 2020 here.
Blogs
Coronavirus – China 'potent' COVID-19 treatment will likely be ready before a vaccine
There are numerous reports on treatments and vaccines hitting the news each day. Some are more reliable than others, so do beware. FWIW, an item from China's Global Times, ICYMI, on a Chinese research team working on unsheathing neutralizing antibodies
US oil production is falling more steeply than expected
This from the FT on a report indicating a sharper drop in US oil output than expected. – And further drops are expected later in 2020 as planned upstream spending further cuts supply Genscape:
Russian President Putin has ordered bail out measures for Russia's oil industry
Putin wants support for the country's oil industry against a background of the hefty cuts in output in agreement with other of the the world's main producers. – Has given his government until June 15 to come up measures. Will likely include:
On the horizon next week – vote in US Congress to sanction China officials over human rights abuse
The US House (lower house of the Congress) plans to vote next week on moves to impose sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses against Muslim minorities
China will not back down from "US quickening technology war mongering" – warn of "ample countermeasures"
again, with a response to the US economic measures taken against dozens of Chinese companies: Global Times Via the GT (the media group is a part of the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, that is, state media in China):
US to add 33 Chinese firms, institutions to an economic blacklist – accusation of helping China spy, links to WMDs
US Commerce Department to take action against companies producing products/services that assist Chinese military activities, specifically: – for being "complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighu
'Frugal 4' European countries oppose the German/French EUR500 bn fund – propose an emergency fund instead
Last week saw Germany and France agree to support the €500bn Recovery Fund. However, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands object and have instead jointly called for a temporary fund for emergency loans as an alternative.
The PBOC is expected to cut interest rates, RRR in H2 to support the economy
What's ahead from the People's Bank of China, China's Global Times with the heads up: – highly likely to announce interest rate cuts or reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cuts in the second half of the year —
CFTC Commitments of Traders – Traders Bet Precious Metals to Go Higher
<p>According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended May 19, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures added +2 584 contracts to 543 603 for the week. Speculative long positions declined -17 540 contracts while shorts slumped -20 124 contracts. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline dropped -3 148 contracts […]