Central banks act further to flood world......>

FOREX: Central banks act further to flood world with dollars

- Swap lines were enhanced considerably Friday, with central banks announcing a

coordinated shift to provide USD liquidity on a daily, not weekly, basis via

swap lines. This appeared to trim the USD's firm weekly rally - although the DXY

remains higher by close to 5% since Monday. On the fiscal side, the EU dropped

further any hurdle to national governments opening the spending taps, as central

budget rules were aggressively relaxed to remove any block for national

lawmakers to stem job losses. 

- GBP was the best performing currency in G10 and the Chancellor appeared to

meet expectations with a sizeable and generous wage guarantee scheme to shore up

workers hit by the virus outbreak. NOK had yet another torrid session, initially

faltering as the Norges Bank trimmed rates unexpectedly for the second

consecutive Friday (this time down to 0.25%) and found another headwind as the

oil price returned lower. NOK was comfortably the weakest in G10.

- Focus in the coming week inevitably remains on the worldwide response to the

Coronavirus outbreak, with prelim Global PMIs the data highlight.