Forex Today: Holidays in Asia and fear to start the week

What you need to know on Monday, May 3:

The American dollar soared on Friday as risk-aversion fueled demand for the greenback alongside month-end flows. The EUR/USD pair settled at 1.2020 while GBP/USD finished the week around 1.3830. The Australian dollar also fell, but held above the 0.7700 threshold, while the USD/CAD settled near weekly lows in the 1.2280 price zone.

Stocks fell, with US indexes posting substantial losses, while US government bond yields remained subdued, ending Friday little changed on a daily basis. Despite the market has been looking beyond coronavirus-related headlines, there was a report on Friday that spurred concerns.

A preliminary study indicates that just one shot of a coronavirus vaccine is not enough to generate protection against the new, more aggressive variants. Given the world’s shortage of vaccines, many countries have chosen to speed up vaccinating with at least one dose, to cover a larger portion of its population, rather than providing two shots to a smaller number of people. With that in mind, the economic comeback may take longer than anticipated.

Gold settled around $ 1,770.00 a troy ounce, little changed for a second consecutive week. Oil retreated on Friday, after hitting fresh one-month highs mid-week. WTI finished the week with gains at $ 63.45 a barrel.

Japan celebrates the Golden Week and will remain on holidays until next Wednesday. China also celebrates different local holidays. Volumes at the weekly opening will be quite low and may result in unexpected wide movements among major pairs.

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