Risk on as US and Europe avert trade battle

Trump/Juncker meeting has results

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker did not come away from Washington empty-handed. The two presidents reached an accord which included expanding imports of US liquefied natural gas and soybeans while reducing industrial tariffs on each side. Previously, Trump had threatened to impose a 25% tariff on imports of European cars. If Europe can do it, how about China? That will be the next question on everyone’s lips.

The news came late in the session and helped Wall Street to a stronger close after struggling for most of the session. Boeing and AT&T were drags after disappointing earnings. The US dollar retreated across the board, losing almost 1% versus the Canadian Dollar and touching its lowest level in six weeks.

USD/CAD Daily Chart

Source: Oanda fxTrade

Oil rises on stockpiles drawdown

Data released by the Energy Information Administration showed a larger than expected drawdown on crude inventories in the week to July 20. Estimates suggested a drawdown of 2.33 million barrels however a total of 6.15 million barrels were required. This drawdown more than wiped out the 5.84 million barrels added to stockpiles the previous week.

Source: MarketPulse

ECB in focus on the data calendar

All eyes will on the ECB rate meeting and subsequent press conference today. Not that there are any expectations for any shift or tweak in policy but, as Craig points out, it can sometimes be painful to ignore any central bank meetings, particularly the ECB.

Will ECB offer any surprises on Thursday?

The rest of the calendar is populated with US goods trade balance for June, with the deficit seen widening to $67.0 billion from $64.85 billion. Recall, China’s trade surplus ballooned to a record surplus in the same month, according to data reported earlier this month. Other items include US wholesale inventories and durable goods orders.

There is also a seven-year US note auction which, if yesterday’s five-year auction was an indicator, should be well received. The five-year auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.61, up from 2.55 at the previous auction and above 2.49 over the past 12 auctions. The five-year yield edged up to 2.815% from 2.719%.

You can see the full MarketPulse data calendar at: https://www.marketpulse.com/economic-events/

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