Weekly Forex Market Recap: July 19 – 23

After a volatile start to the week on covid-19 fears, markets calmed down to a steady recovery by the end of the week.

The Canadian dollar was the top dog among the majors, not only rising with the recovery in risk, but also likely on rising oil prices as traders forecasts tightening supplies.

Notable News & Economic Updates:

Intermarket Weekly Recap

Dollar, Gold, S&P 500, 10-yr Treasury Yield, Bitcoin, Oil

Risk aversion sentiment hit the markets at the start of the week as traders priced in fears that the recent rise in the covid-19 cases around the world would weaken the economic recovery. On the chart above, we can see the turn lower in risk assets (i.e., equities, oil, and bitcoin), as well as a fall in U.S. Treasury yields.

That sentiment lasted through Tuesday’s session, where a bottom in risk aversion sentiment seemed to quickly form, despite a lack of attributable news events or headlines. With no apparent catalysts for the shift in sentiment, that bottom was likely a “buy the dip” move by traders.

In the currency space, safe havens like the euro, yen, and Greenback benefited from the risk-off moves on Monday and Tuesday, and as expected in this environment, the comdolls were hard hit early on.

But as positive risk sentiment slowly recovered through the rest of the week, the comdolls eventually took the top spot among the majors, lead the Canadian dollar. The Loonie’s out performance was likely boosted by the swift recovery in oil prices as traders speculated that oil supplies would tighten.

The euro had the most notable scheduled event of the week for currency traders with the latest monetary policy statement from the European Central Bank. This event came inline with the expectations that the ECB would remain accommodative, raised their inflation goal to 2%, and re-iterated that they’re not too eager to pull emergency support anytime soon. Euro volatility quickly pick up quickly on the event, ending with the euro lower on the session.