The greenback came under renewed selling pressure after a short-lived recovery seen yesterday
Wall Street stocks edged higher overnight as investors cheered better-than-expected weekly jobless claims and further progress in stimulus negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. New US weekly jobless claims arrived at 787,000 last week, coming in below 870,000 expected. Meanwhile, Pelosi expressed optimism over solving the remaining issues on the stimulus package. As a result, the S&P 500 rose 0.52%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.54%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.18%.
Today in Asia, equities were mixed-to-positive, with investors barely reacting to the second and final debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden debate that was less chaotic than the previous one. Still, gains were limited as US lawmakers struggled to hammer out a fresh economic rescue package, making investors nervous. As such, Japan’s Nikkei 225 picked up just 0.18%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.53% while the Shanghai Composite index shed over 1% during the session.
European markets advanced on Friday morning as investors focused on some signs of progress toward a U.S. stimulus deal. After a flat open, the pan-European Stoxx 600 gained 0.9% in early trade. On the negative side, the flash Eurozone PMI composite index dropped to a four-month low in October to 49.4, versus 50.4 in September.
Meanwhile, the greenback came under renewed selling pressure after a short-lived recovery seen yesterday. EURUSD surged from intraday lows below 1.18 and has settled around 1.1850 in recent trading. Of note, the euro climbed despite mixed economic data out of the Eurozone and Germany, suggesting traders are now focused on the overall market sentiment. However, further gains in the common currency could be limited in the short term as investors keep a cautious tone amid rising coronavirus cases in some European countries. The latest rise in the pair could be partly attributed to upbeat data out of Germany, with the flash manufacturing PMI coming in at 58.0 versus 55.0 expected. If the bullish bias persists, EURUSD will need to make a decisive break above the 1.1870 area in order to challenge the 1.19 barrier.
