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The Pound Sterling (GBP) extends its winning streak against the US Dollar (USD) for the third trading day on Friday.

The Euro received a boost from French PM Sébastien Lecornu’s victory in two no-confidence votes on Thursday. The pair bounced up from 0.8665 and retraced Wednesday’s losses, aiming for the top of the recent range, in the area of 0.8720-0.8730.

European markets traded firmly in the red on Friday morning as concerns over the banking sector reached the region.

Dow Jones futures fall 0.61% to move below 45,900 during European hours on Friday, ahead of the opening of the United States (US) regular session. The S&P 500 futures decline 0.88% to trade near 6,600, while Nasdaq 100 futures plunge 0.96% to break below 24,600 at the time of writing.

That should put a smile on Sanae Takaichi’s face as it likely reflects better odds now of her becoming the next prime minister. Any pact/alliance is still yet to be formalised though but with the LDP pushing for a vote on 21 October, one can believe that the talks today are merely to finetune an agreement between both sides.

Fujita also says that they will stop any discussions with opposition parties as talks with the LDP now enters into the stage of finalising details. As for the overall backdrop, I summarised the situation here: Japan’s LDP and Nippon Ishin parties set for second round of talks today

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.

EUR/USD appreciates for the fourth consecutive day, trading near 1.1720 at the moment of writing on Friday and on track to its best weekly performance in the last three months.

We’re seeing a risk selloff as equities slump but so is the dollar at the moment. Instead, bonds are finding more bids while the Japanese yen and Swiss franc are the preferred plays in the major currencies space. USD/JPY is down 0.6% on the day now to 149.48 and is it time to close the gap from last Monday’s open?

A hold below the 150.00 mark will certainly keep sellers very much interested. That especially with price action also tripping below the 50.0 Fib retracement level of the swing higher to start October trading.

This is all coming as 10-year Treasury yields are sticking with the break under 4%, falling further to 3.93% on the day.

Elsewhere, EUR/USD is up 0.1% to 1.1700 with large option expiries offering up some pull while USD/CHF is down 0.5% to 0.7890 on the day. Even as the dollar struggles though, commodity currencies are worse off amid the risk-off mood in markets today with AUD/USD down 0.5% to 0.6453 currently.

S&P 500 futures are now down 1.2% while in Europe, the DAX is posting 2% losses so far to start the session.

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.

The Euro accelerated its downtrend against the Japanese Yen on Friday, reaching fresh two-week lows at the 175.20 area so far, as the Japanese Yen rallies across the board following hawkish comments by the Bank of Japan’s policymakers.BoJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida assessed on Friday that the J

Here is what you need to know on Friday, October 17: