Coronavirus weekend news – Chinese media, Global Times, reports via Twitter that an official at the country’s National Health Commission:
GT also report on a more than 20,000 person phase III clinical trial in the UAE of Sinopharm’s COVID19 vaccine

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Forex news for North American trading on August 21, 2020
Data on the US came out better-than-expected today, with the housing rebound continuing. The existing home sales data for July (accounts for 90% of US housing transactions) rose to 5.86 million vs. 4.70 billion in the previous month and above the estimate of 5.41 million. The

Jackson Hole is the focus, its a virtual meeting so there will be no back-room deals (or poker games).
Earlier previews of the event:
The theme of the symposium is:

Weekly FX speculative positioning data from the CFTC
– EUR long 197K vs 200K long last week. Longs trimmed by 3K
– GBP long 7K vs 3k short last week. Positioned reversed to long.

Dow industrial average leads the way
The final numbers are showing:
For the week, the NASDAQ led the way. The Dow industrial average ended the week unchanged.

Texas COVID
statistics
The Texas Covid cases rose by 5023 vs. 4923 yesterday. Looking at the chart below, the daily case count has been moving slowly back to the downside after peaking above 12,000 in July.

USD gains
The USD has gained most against the GBP and the EUR after weak European PMI’s and the usual Brexit doom and gloom. 
The US PMI due later will be key for the next turn in the dollar as European traders start to head for lunch. 

USD strength
Other markets
– FTSE: -0.09%
– Euro Stoxx:-0.10%
– Dax: -0.6%
– Gold: -0.68%
– Bitcoin: -1.13% 
The session started with a positive handover from Asia .

Office for National Statistics

Brexit woes drags down Cable
Cable finds some temporary support from the key weekly trend line as sellers take some profit after a flurry of negative Brexit talk from and the chief negotiators. A break of this level to the downside will be significant.