Equities progress, helping pressure haven.....>

FOREX: Equities progress, helping pressure haven FX

- Stock markets globally were higher, with markets eyeing the (so far) smooth

reopening of a number of US states and some countries in Europe. This helped

risk proxies AUD, NZD trade well, with the dollar on the backfoot.

- For UK markets, focus turned to the appearance of BoE's Bailey in front of the

Treasury Select Committee, at which Bailey stated the BoE are not ruling out the

use of negative rates and that he had changed his mind "a bit". As a result, GBP

was the weakest in G10 Wednesday as a result. The GBP weakness was particularly

relevant against the EUR, prompting EUR/GBP to print the highest levels since

late March.

- Preliminary May PMI data takes focus Thursday, with economic activity

deteriorating further across the month. Numbers from Australia cross first,

followed by Japan, the Eurozone, UK and US later in the session. Both the

Turkish and South African central bank rate decisions are due, with both banks

seen cutting policy rate by 50bps apiece. Ascension Day across continental

Europe could keep volumes muted.