Pip Diddy

The Kiwi danced to the tune of its counterparts’ price action last week. Will it have a chance to set its own rhythm this week?

The session’s forex calendar was a bit sparse, so market players apparently turned to risk sentiment for direction since battle lines were drawn between the safe-havens and the higher-yielding comdolls.

Trading was a mixed bag of nuts during the Asian session, with many traders staying in the sidelines ahead of Powell’s Jackson Hole speech.

After a bit of a pause in the earlier session, dollar demand kicked into high gear once more, shrugging off mostly downbeat data.

The Greenback’s rally stalled but the Aussie and the Kiwi extended their slide as risk aversion lingered. The pound and the euro, meanwhile, were bid broadly higher, with the euro ultimately coming out on top. 

Low-yielding currencies took the top spots during the Asian trading session after the U.S. implemented its scheduled tariff changes and China reciprocated the move.

The scrilla hardly stood a chance against political drama in Washington and a cautious Fed outlook on trade concerns.

The Greenback was swamped by sellers across the board right from the get-go. The Greenback’s pain is the euro’s gain, though, since the euro was able to claim the top spot, although the Swissy benefited as well.

There was no one headline to rule market price action, so Asian session traders were all over the place in the past couple of hours.

Market participants kept their hopes up for positive trade developments, lifting commodity currencies and pushing the yen further down.