Continuation of the trend
One of the major divergences in markets in the past two months has been the lack of enthusiasm in emerging market currencies. Most — if not all — are way below pre-pandemic levels.

Forex news from the European trading session – 28 August 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– JPY leads, USD lags on the day
– European equities mixed; E-minis up ~0.3%

Cleveland Fed president, Loretta Mester, remarks to CNBC
– The virus is really driving things
– Businesses have tempered hiring as virus cases have been increasing
This isn’t much of anything new that the Fed has communicated since last month – similar to the minutes last week – and the point on inflation echoes from Powell yesterday.

Further comments by Mester
Nuff‘ said.

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, addresses the public on the health crisis
– Coronavirus pandemic situation likely to get more difficult in the coming months
A bit of a warning from Merkel as the virus situation in the region starts to worsen over the past few weeks. Germany is now seeing over 17,000 active cases across the country

Further comments by Merkel
– Hearing that there are hopeful approaches for developing a vaccine
– Says Germany is to spend most of EU funds on existing programs
Merkel laying down some expectations over how life will be over the next few months at the very least for Germany and/or Europe for the most part.

Forex news from the European trading session – 27 August 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– AUD leads, CHF lags on the day
– European equities a little lower; E-minis down 0.3%

Fed chair Powell will be due to speak at 1310 GMT
Among the key issues that the market will be anticipating in his speech will be on the inflation outlook and how the Fed will go about their future policy decisions based on that.

Some light bids in the dollar, but all eyes stay on Powell
The greenback is up to session highs for the day now, but the move isn’t too extensive for the most part. EUR/USD is down to around 1.1800 and is breaching below its 100-hour moving average as sellers look to seize some near-term control for

China says that there were ‚prohibited drugs‘ found in the beef from John Dee imports
The latest move above adds to earlier duties on barley and other beef products from before, and also the anti-dumping probe on Australian wine last week .