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.

ECB vice president, Luis de Guindos, remarks
– European banks not likely to recover from the virus crisis before 2022
– The recovery of the Eurozone economy will be a vital factor in banks‘ solvency
He’s not really touching on anything important in his lecture today, but the ECB in general doesn’t have much to offer as they

The latest BofA fund manager survey results are out
I think the sentiment that this was a bear market rally has died quite a while back. The fact that the Nasdaq is making record highs and the S&P 500 itself is close to its own all-time highs is continuing to put that argument to rest –

Forex news from the European trading session – 17 August 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– JPY leads, NZD lags on the day
– European equities little changed; E-minis up 0.3%

This comes after the PBOC injected liquidity into the system earlier today
The move helped to bolster Chinese equities, with the Shanghai Composite ending the day 2.3% higher to start the new week.

Comments by US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross
– US and China talks are continuing at various levels
– Looking to close loopholes to prevent Huawei from getting access to US technology
This just further cements the likely narrative that anything that may be discussed at the trade review will keep this facade up despite China not living up