FX MARKET REPORT 30.09.2020
GBP/USD navigates within the 1.2750-1.3000 range despite UK final GDP revised up to-19.8% QoQ in Q2. EUR/USD now looks to 1.1800 and above. Dollar Index was up 0.1% at 94.017 while USD/JPY was down 0.1% at 105.55. DAX futures contract in Germany traded 1% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.9% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.7%. Chinese data released earlier Wednesday showed that the world’s second-largest economy’s recovery continues to progress. The September manufacturing PMI came in at 51.5, beating August’s 51 reading, and the non-manufacturing PMI was 55.9 against August’s 55.2 – both remaining above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. U.K. GDP was revised to show a drop of 19.8% in the second quarter compared with the first, after the initial estimate showed a drop of 20.4%, while German retail sales rose a better than expected 3.% in August. Later in the session sees the release of German unemployment data for September, which will be studied carefully as an indicator of the strength of the economic recovery in Europe’s largest economy. Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) said it would cut up to 9,000 more jobs as it wrestles with a new environment of low prices and potentially lower long-term demand. U.S. crude futures traded 0.9% lower at $38.94 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 1.1% to $41.11. Both contracts closed more than 3% lower on Tuesday. Gold futures fell 0.6% to $1,891.45/oz.