By mid-week last week, concerns over escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea capped risk appetite and sent Investors in pursuit of lower-yielding assets. The benefactors of this act were Gold, Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc. All 3 major Market Sessions traded along this sentiment. Base Metals were broadly advancing and the Oil benchmarks advanced as well.
Towards end of the week, RBNZ took centre-stage. The New Zealand Dollar reacted but dominant attention was on the US-North Korea Drama, causing higher-yielding commodity currencies to rally largely. By the close of the Wall Street Session on Friday, EURUSD edged higher following the Producer Price Index Data. GBPUSD remained on decline, USDCAD retreated despite positive numbers from the New Housing Prices Data in Canada. Dollar weakened against the Yen as the Yen is usually sought after during Geo-Political Tensions.
