That sets up a more interesting session later in the day
S&P 500 futures have trimmed losses to 5-6 points now after having been down by as much as 26 points earlier today. The European session low saw futures slip by 0.7% or by 22 points before recovering to current levels.

Deutsche Bank argues that the euro may have hit a top for now
Adding that any move towards 1.2300 in EUR/USD would make the range lean towards the extreme side and see ‚ultimate exhaustion‘.

Mark Meadows comments to Fox News in an interview
– Says will be here until Saturday, hopes that Democrats will as well
– Says private talks with Democrats have gone extremely well
It is pretty much the same old brand new story day in, day out. As much as Meadows is touting that talks are going well, a

Likely more noise more than anything else
The Fed has that the economic situation is starting to worsen a little and cast a bit of a dark cloud over the outlook in 2H 2020, considering the fact that the virus situation was escalating rather rapidly across the US last month.

Forex news from the European trading session – 19 August 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– NZD leads, GBP lags on the day
– European equities a little higher; E-minis up 0.1%

All eyes stay on North American trading once again, with the July FOMC meeting minutes also a key focus point today
Elsewhere, gold is keeping under $2,000 to start the day and tested its 200-hour moving average near $1,980 at the start of the session. But buyers defended the level and price action has kept around

Latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending 14 August 2020
–  +6.8%
– Market index 824.5 vs 852.8 prior
– Purchase index 308.9 vs 306.6 prior
The drop in the past week was largely due to a fall in refinancing activity, following the record low long-term mortgage rate seen last week. What stands out more

European stocks back in the green now
European indices are now in positive territory after a softer start, but I would argue that the risk mood remains more tepid for the time being with US futures seen up by ~0.1% and generally little changed for the most part.

Forex news from the European trading session – 18 August 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– GBP leads, USD lags on the day
– European equities higher; E-minis up 0.2%

The dollar looks vulnerable to a further drop
That is pushing dollar pairs to near its recent extremes with EUR/USD testing a break above 1.1900 again – a level that has capped upside over the past three weeks.