Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Gold hits a record in the tariff fallout

• US initial jobless claims 224K vs 225K estimate
• US February advanced goods trade balance -$147.391 billion vs -$155.5 billion expected
• US Q4 final GDP +2.4% vs +2.3% expected
• US February advance wholesale inventories +0.3% vs +0.4% expected
• US February pending home sales +2.0% vs +1.0% expected
• Australian PM set to call a May 3 election
• Canada won’t impose counter-tariffs on the US until April 2
• Carney: Our response to the latest tariffs is to fight
• Ontario expects the US to significantly lower auto tariffs – report
• Mexican central bank cuts rates by 50 vs 50 bps cut expected
• US CBO projects huge US deficits forever based on current laws (that’s before tax cuts)
• US treasury auctions of $44 billion of 7-year notes at a high yield of 4.233%
• Ukraine Pres. Zelenskyy says Ukraine will give US evidence of Russia violating cease-fire
• Sheinbaum: We are going to give a response to US tariffs after April 2
• ECB’s de Guindos We are optimistic with regard to inflation

Markets:

• S&P 500 down 0.3%, Nasdaq -0.5%
• WTI crude oil up 18-cents to $69.83
• US 10-year yields up 2.5 bps to 4.36%
• Gold up $37 to $3056
• GBP leads, JPY lags

The economic calendar was busy and there is a segment of the market waiting for an ugly rise in initial jobless claims but it didn’t happen today. However the US trade deficit was near a record once again and that should be a drag on GDP that we see in tomorrow’s Atlanta Fed tracker.

None of the data left much of a mark on the US dollar but we will get the latest PCE numbers tomorrow with a focus both on the consumption side and the inflation side.

Flow-driven trading led to the most-notable moves today with spikes in sterling and the euro into the London fix. Both those moves of around 25 pips quickly faded afterwards. Still the US dollar was generally soft as the thinking around tariffs is shifting. At one point they were dollar positive but we’re at the point where the market is debating if the US administration doesn’t care about short-term growth anymore and that’s weighing.

All the turmoil in global affairs continues to push investors to safe haven. Gold has gone parabolic since this time last year when Trump passed Biden in the polls and it rose further today. There was a brief round of profit-taking and a quick $25 drop but that dip was bought aggressively and there were new highs at $5059 later.

In the stock market, angst was high coming into the session and US equities slumped at the open but after the weak hands were shaken out there were signs of a cooling of trade tensions and sentiment stabilized. AI companies were also hit as that trend is threatened again and eyes are on CoreWeave’s IPO slated for tomorrow.

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