Gold prices are under a little pressure from a stronger US Dollar as March ends, but they’ve gained broadly over the month and there seems little impetus to chase them lower
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Japanese economy minister insists no need to declare state of emergency now
Japanese economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, speaks after meeting with the government's expert panel earlier That said, I'm sure there are a lot of reasonable people out there and if the government is seen to be taking this seriously, offices and businesses will also shut shop to follow the government's request to try and curb the
Switzerland March manufacturing PMI 43.7 vs 42.2 expected
Latest data released by Procure – 1 April 2020 – 49.5 ForexLive This reflects a similar drop experienced by manufacturing activity across the European region, with production and new orders being heavily affected while supply chain disruptions are also still ongoing as the virus outbreak continues to grip the world.
China president Xi says to ensure economic, trade activites return to normal
Comments by China president Xi Jinping, via state media – China to speed up 5G network, data center construction – Economy faces challenges as virus cases rise globally ForexLive
Spain March manufacturing PMI 45.7 vs 44.0 expected
Latest data released by Markit – 1 April 2020 – 50.4 ForexLive The details of the report don't make for easy reading with output and new orders experiencing their sharpest fall since mid-2012, while average lead times deteriorated by its greatest degree in the survey's history – spanning back to 22 years ago.
Tokyo said to see another increase of at least 60 coronavirus cases today
Kyodo News reports on the matter confirmed ForexLive
European equities open softer to start the day
Risk-off tones prevail to kick start the new month – Eurostoxx -1.2% – Germany DAX -3.0% – France CAC 40 -2.0% – UK FTSE -1.8% – Spain IBEX -2.3% ForexLive
USD funding demand to rise again as June/July Turn in focus
Via Bloomberg I came across this piece on Bloomberg's Market Live blog making a case for USD demand increasing in the near term. The reasoning was as follows:
UK says it has the capacity to test 12,750 people a day
According to UK housing minister, Chris Pincher – Hopes to test 25,000 people a day by mid-April ForexLive The UK that it had 25,150 confirmed cases of the coronavirus after running 143,186 tests as of yesterday. That's a hit rate of between one-in-five to one-in-six tests so far.
Eurostoxx futures -3.3% in early European trading
Strong risk-off tones prevail to start the session – German DAX futures -3.3% – French CAC 40 futures -3.1% – UK FTSE futures -3.2% ForexLive Equities are picking up from where they left off in Q1, with what looks to be a sour start to the new quarter with the risk mood keeping softer today.