The Morning Update

The USD trading lower, equity markets are down, oil prices and treasury yields areup. The USD index is hovering near its four-month high. Market awaits Fed’s Powell speech early afternoon and Friday’s employment figures.

In other news.  Taiwan hit with the strongest earthquake in nearly 25 years, triggering tsunami warning in Japan. Ukraine is lowering conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted force.

In currency news. The JPY continues to trade near multi-decade low despite the underlying fear of a central bank intervention. The NZD remains under pressure due to its fundamentals. In the Asian currencies, the USD/JPY trades near 152 (up 0.11%), THB down 0.25%, MYR down 0.02%, AUD and NZD are down 0.08% and 0.05% respectively. The ZAR rallied 0.21% while the MXN hedged up 0.13%.

In commodity markets. Oil is up nearly 0.73%, Gold took a breather (down 0.38%) after another record high as growing tensions in the Middle East and U.S.interest rate cut hopes continued to push investors to the safe haven asset. Silver on the other hand rose 0.5% and copper reached an all-time high driven by strong demand outlook and supply concerns. On the agricultural side, Wheat is up over1% while Soybean is up 0.26%.

Currentlevel USDIndex               104.796            Down 0.02%

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The USD/CAD continue to trade in a tight range with a small downward bias as oil continues to rise.

Current level USD/CAD               1.3573             Up0.07%

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The EUR/CAD after reaching a near 2-monrh low rallied slightly above 1.4600.The market seems to start discounting an ECB rate cut that perhaps may lead to a move higher on the currency pair.

Current level EUR/CAD                1.4621            up 0.08%

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Eurozone inflation fell unexpectedly last month, solidifying the case for the European Central Bank to start lowering borrowing costs from record highs.Eurozone unemployment remained steady.

Current level EUR/USD                1.0767            Down0.01%

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GBP/EUR continues to hedge lower as UK economy inches closer to where the BoE can begin cutting rate, ECB’s spokesperson said he had no objection to a June cut but would liketo see more data.

Currentlevel GBP/EUR     1.1668 (0.8566)        Down 0.08%

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The GBP struggles to extend recovery above 1.2580 in early morning trading. Market participants are waiting for the US employment figures to be released on Friday.

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CurrentlevelGBP/USD                1.2575             Down0.02%

Otherccy levels vs C$. GBPCAD 1.7072  AUDCAD .8842  CADCHF.6693 CADJPY 111.63  CADTHB 27.02  CADCNY 5.3313  CADNOK 7.9792 CADSEK 7.9132 CADDKK 5.0956  CADZAR 13.8362

Otherccy levels vs USD. JPY 151.68  CHF.9080  AUD.6515 NZD .5969  CNY7.2359  MXN 16.5624  INR 83.4491  PLN 3.9821 CZK 23.481 ZAR 18.7850  ILS 3.7272  AED 3.6720  KWD 0.30766

OtherMajor X levels. EURCHF.97.91  EURJPY 163.55  EURSEK 11.5808 EURNOK 11.6717 GBPCHF 1.1426  EURAUD 1.6543  GBPAUD 1.9316 AUDCHF.5917  AUDJPY 98.84  CHFJPY 166.98

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