Currencies Tread Water as Traders Look at Headlines

Major currencies, like the Japanese yen, euro and the U.S. dollar barely budged during the Asian trade session on Wednesday.

Traders are looking for more clarification as it would seem that the United State and China are close to signing a preliminary trade accord that will end their contentious tit for tat trade spat.

This is also a holiday shorten week for U.S. financial markets as they will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Safe haven currencies like the yen were a tad lower. The headline USD/JPY Forex market was last trading at 109.05 yen. This is below its two high price point at 109.205 yen set on Tuesday. Safe haven currencies are weaker thanks to improving market sentiment.

The EUR/USD currency exchange rate is fairly flat for the week. Trade volume is starting to slow as U.S. Forex traders enter tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day holiday. After the holiday, currency traders will start to rebalance portfolios as we enter the last month of the year.

Currencies in Standstill as Traders wait on Trade Commentary to Trickle Out

Yesterday, President Donald Trump said that trade talks with Beijing were in the “final throes” of deliberations. This would lead to a trade accord that would end their 16 month trade war.

He did say, however, that the protests in Hong Kong remain a big problem. Trump said that Washington will continue to support pro-democracy protestors. This could slow a deal down as China does not want outside interface on internal matters.

This trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies has dented global economic growth as well as consumer and business sentiment.

This trade war has also hampered business investment as consumer spending has slowed down. This trade war has also made it more difficult to move capital across borders.