- US Dollar Index extends slide to fresh 15-day lows.
- Wall Street’s main indexes trade in red on Thursday.
- Month-end flows seem to be ramping up volatility.
The USD/JPY pair rose sharply in the last hour and touched a fresh daily high of 106.97. The lack of apparent fundamental drivers and the broad-based selling pressure surrounding the USD suggests that this sharp move could be caused by month-end flows into the London fix. As of writing, the pair was up 0.2% on the day at 106.90.
Market sentiment turns sour on Thursday
Earlier in the day, the data from the US revealed that Personal Spending in March declined 7.5% in March to come in worse than the market expectation for a decrease of 5%. Additionally, Personal Spending fell 2% in the same period and the weekly Initial Jobless Claims arrived at 3.8 million.
The gloomy data weighed on the market sentiment and caused Wall Street’s main indexes to open the day in the negative territory. Furthermore, the 10-year US Treasury bond yield is down 4.5% on the day to confirm the pair’s action is likely impacted by liquidations on the last day of April.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index, which tracks the USD’s performance against a basket of six major currencies extended its slide and dropped to its lowest level in more than two weeks near the 99 handle. During an interview with Fox News on Thursday, White House economic adviser Hassett argued that the unemployment rate in April’s jobs report could rise to 19%.
Technical levels to watch for
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