Forex Today: Fear at the start of the week

What you need to know on Tuesday, August 17:

The dollar posted uneven gains against high-yielding rivals but edged lower against safe-haven ones as risk-aversion dominated financial markets at the beginning of the week. Poor Chinese data, tensions in the Middle East, the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant in the US and soft macroeconomic data, were behind the sour mood.

The EUR/USD pair retreated just modestly from around 1.1800 to settle around 1.1770, while GBP/USD stabilized around 1.3840/50. Commodity-linked currencies suffered the most, despite a late Wall Street bounce and fresh highs in gold.

US indexes opened with sharp losses, trimming them throughout the day. The DJIA and the S&P reached fresh all-time highs. On the other hand, US Treasury yields fell amid higher bonds prices.

Gold advanced, ending the day at $1,787 a troy ounce. Crude oil prices bounced from daily lows but still finished the day in the red, with WTI currently trading at $67.10 a barrel.

The macroeconomic calendar was scarce, with the focus on US Retail Sales, to be out on Tuesday. A dismal number could further spur risk-aversion.

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