Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 21 Mar: Trump says there is ‘flexibility’ on tariffs

• Trump: We can talk about China tariffs
• Canada January retail sales -0.6% vs -0.4% expected
• Fed’s Williams: Current modestly-restrictive policy is ‘entirely appropriate’
• More from Fed’s Williams: We’re not in a hurry to make next mon policy move
• Eurozone March consumer confidence -14.5 vs -13.0 expected
• Fed’s Goolsbee: Business contacts are waiting on capital spending in light of tariffs
• What FedEx earnings reveal about the state of the economy
• ECB’s Stournaras: All available information points to another rate cut in April
• Fed’s Waller: I preferred to continue current pace of balance sheet runoff
• King Charles made an offer to Trump to join the Commonwealth, hoping to cool tensions
• Canada February new housing price index 0.1% versus -0.1% last month
• Trump unswayed at efforts to craft tariff deal – report
• Bakers Hughes oil rig count -1 at 486

Markets:

• WTI crude oil up 20-cents to $68.27
• US 10-year yields up 1.7 bps to 4.25%
• Gold down $22 to $3021
• S&P 500 up 0.1%, Nasdaq up 0.5%
• USD leads, AUD lags

It was a strange day in markets and I suspect that the quad witching had something to do with it. Equities were beaten up early but came back to life when Trump said there was ‘flexibility’ on tariffs ahead of April 2 and that he was going to talk with Xi. Prior to that the US dollar was broadly strong but it gave some back afterwards.

Aside from that, it looked like flows were in charge. The euro and pound bottomed out right at the European close in a flurry of USD strength. That partly unwound later but still left the dollar solidly higher on the day in a reversal of the recent trend. The euro touched 1.0798 from a high of 1.0861 in Europe. It bounced from the figure to end at 1.0815.

The Canadian dollar was in focus with retail sales data released. USD/CAD rose after the data as it modestly missed estimates and hit 1.4375 but the advance reading for February sales was better than feared and that move unwound along with the better risk mood and a bounce in oil prices.

Gold hit an air pocket shortly after the US equity open in a quick fall to $3000 from $3035. Bids at the figure held though and that started a slow rebounded to $3023 last.

Overall, it wasn’t a big day for news or market moves. The comments from Fed officials highlighted the uncertainty on the outlook and a willingness to wait on economic data. That was totally in-line with what Powell said on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.