Forex news for North American trading
on February 19, 2021
The USD was the weakest currency at the close of yesterday and it continued the move to the downside today. Although it was not the weakest of the majors (the CHF was the weakest), it fell vs all the majors with the exception of the CHF.  The biggest declines

NASDAQ index and Dow industrial average close marginally higher. Russell index surges
a snapshot of the final numbers shows:

Fed Powell testifies. RBNZ rate decision
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Pres. Biden speaking in Michigan

Weekly forex futures positioning data from the CFTC for the week ending Tuesday, February 16, 2021
– EUR long 140K vs 140K long last week. Unchanged
– GBP long 22K vs 21K long last week. Longs increased by 1K

Latest data released by CBI – 19 February 2021
The CBI readings are a survey on manufacturers to rate the level of volume for orders expected during the next 3 months.

Bloomberg reports on the matter
The report says that China is conducting a review of its rare earth policy and looking into possibly banning the export of rare earth technology to countries or companies it deems as a threat to state security, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Gold keeps lower by 0.3% but off the lows earlier in the day
That might just be the story for gold as it fails to catch a respite even as the dollar has slumped by quite a bit in European morning trade.

AUD/USD climbs to a high of 0.7837, its highest level since March 2018
The dollar is slumping further across the board and that is helping to lift AUD/USD to its highest levels in almost three years as the pair looks to break resistance at around 0.7800-20 and keep a break towards 0.8000 potentially next.

Latest data released by Markit/CIPS – 19 February 2021
That is surely a welcome development as it keeps the already more optimistic focal points of the market i.e. vaccine rollout and BOE not rushing into negative rates, in an even better spot as we navigate through Q1 this year. Markit notes that: