What you should know on Friday, March 18:
The US dollar remained under selling pressure throughout the day, accelerating its decline ahead of the London correction. The dollar was hit by persistent weakness in government bond yields following the Federal Reserve’s hawkish announcement on Wednesday.
At the end of the US session, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia may be contemplating a chemical weapons attack, which would help the dollar regain some ground.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues without progress in the peace talks. Financial markets enjoyed temporary relief as headlines indicated international bondholders received coupon payments on Russian bonds due March 16 in dollars. However, there is a greater risk to global growth, while the war will only fuel inflationary pressures.
Ukraine and Turkey are working to organize a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. US President Joe Biden will speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi-Jinping on Friday to discuss the matter.
The Bank of England raised the UK benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75% from 0.50%, as widely expected, signaling that “further modest tightening may be appropriate in the coming months,” a dovish turn which sent GBP/USD to an intraday low of 1.3087. The pair managed to recover some ground and settled at 1.3150.
EUR/USD pulled back from an intraday high of 1.1137 and ended the day in the 1.1090 price zone, while USD/CAD tumbled to 1.2630 as oil regained its gains, with WTI ending the day at $103.75. per barrel.
Gold was leaking $1,950 a troy ounce and ended the day around $1,939. The AUD/USD pair retained most of its intraday gains and is trading at the 0.7370 price zone.
The USD/JPY pair consolidated its latest gains and ended the day flat around 118.60.
Source: Fx Street
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