This is what you need to know to trade today friday february 18:
The Market sentiment appears to have improved early on Friday, with Russia announcing a troop withdrawal ahead of US President Joe Biden’s meeting with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Great Britain, the EU and NATO. Despite the positive change observed in sentiment, the dollar remains resilient against its rivals. US Existing Home Sales for January and Eurozone Consumer Confidence data for February will appear on the economic calendar before the weekend, but investors are likely to remain focused on geopolitical headlines.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the UN Security Council that they cannot confirm that Russia was withdrawing its forces. “Russia plans to fabricate a pretext for its attack on Ukraine”Blinken added, and Wall Street’s major indices fell sharply along with US Treasury yields late on Thursday.
However, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday morning that mechanized infantry units were returning to Dagestan after exercises in Crimea and noted that a train carrying tanks was returning to the base. Risk-appetite money flows returned to the markets following this development. On the other hand, several media outlets reported that the shelling in the disputed Donbas region of eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian separatists took place during the early hours of Friday.
After closing flat on Thursday, the US dollar index DXY it continues to move sideways below 96.00 and the benchmark 10-year US bond yield, which fell more than 3% on Thursday, is posting small daily gains trading at 1.98%. Reflecting positive sentiment for risk, US stock index futures are up 0.6%-0.8%.
The EUR/USD struggled to make a decisive move in either direction on Thursday and continues to trade within a tight channel above 1.1350 early on Friday.
The gold continued to find demand as a safe haven on Thursday and gained more than 1.5% to hit its highest level since June at $1,902. The precious metal is staging a technical correction and falls below $1,900 at the start of the European session.
The GBP/USD posted gains for three consecutive days before turning quiet above 1.3600. The UK Office for National Statistics has reported that retail sales rose by 9.1% year-on-year in January. This reading was better than the market expectation of an increase of 8.7%.
The USD/JPY trades in positive territory above 115.00 following rising US bond yields and improving sentiment after a two-day drop. Data from Japan showed that the National Consumer Price Index declined to 0.5% annually in January from 0.8% seen in December, compared to the market expectation of 0.6%.
Risk-off sentiment in the market weighed heavily on cryptocurrencies on Thursday and the Bitcoin fell more than 7%. BTC/USD is trading slightly above the key $40,000 level early Friday. Similarly, the ethereum lost 7.4% on Thursday and fell below $3,000 before entering a consolidation phase near $2,900.
Source: Fx Street
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