ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: EU leaders' summit continues

Forex news for Asia trading on Monday 20 July 2020 

EU summit so far (read from the bottom post up for chronology, altest progress in bold):

• EU leaders summit is going on (and on) - having a break & set to resume at 4.15am

• EU summit said to be moving towards agreement at 375bn grant loan even split

• EU summit - Although Denmark appears to have caved the Netherlands and Austria remain strong holdouts

• EU summit - one of the 'frugals' appear ready to accept a deal

• The EU summit has continued into day 3, latest is there is no sign of agreement

• ECB's Lagarde wants an ambitious EU agreement not necessarily a quick one

• EU summit talks update - recovery fund talks dragging on, no agreement yet

Other:

• Saudi King Salman has been admitted to hospital for 'medical check ups'

• China 1 year and 5 year loan prime rates left unchanged

• Hong Kong have kicked up their COVID-19 restrictions

• 4 reasons gold is going to hit a record high

• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.9928 (vs. Friday at 7.0043)

• FX option expiries for Monday July 20 at the 10am NY cut

• Australia coronavirus - Victoria expected to announce 275 new cases today 

• Japan trade balance for June Y -268.8bn (expected Y -11.9bn)

• US coronavirus cases reported at +67k to nearly 3.7 million now

• UK's Rightmove says mini housing market boom gathering pace

• The Bank of Japan June policy minutes are due at 2350GMT - preview 

• New Zealand services PMI for June: 54.1 (prior 37.2)

• Unsourced report that Trump admin, GOP leaders to meet Monday for next round of stimulus funding

• Oil to trade flat to lower through to the end of 2020

• Texas coronavirus numbers for Sunday: cases +7,300 to more than 325,000

• Australian Treasurer Frydenberg speaks on extension of loan scheme for business

• Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices 20 July 2020

• The euro was the top performer last week while the pound lagged

• Florida coronavirus cases continue to level off at a high rate

The opening session for the week here in Asia today was a day where risk was shunned, with risk currencies lower and stocks unable to hold onto early gains.

EUR opened lower in the early hours as the European Union leaders' summit stretched further into its third day of negotiations with, as I update now, still no agreement on the 750bn EUR recovery fund. This could change, of course, but if not the next opportunity for the next round of negotiations will be into August.

EUR did manage a bounce back, to above 1.1440 but as I post its back towards its earlier session lows.

AUD, NZD, GBP had similar sort of moves and all of these are at the low end of their range as I post.

USD/JPY surged in the half hour leading up to the Tokyo fix to highs (briefly) above 107.50, but once this demand for US dollars was complete it slipped a little back to under 107.40.

As I post the session at the EU leaders' summit is about to get underway again (due at 0415 GMT).

Apart from the developments at the EU we had the usual round of coronavirus news, US news on that front appeared to ease a little but we get such indications after each weekend; weekend counts can be influenced by testing sites shutting for the two days. HK tightening restrictions, as did the Australian state of Victoria which saw large numbers of new cases again over the weekend.