The USD lost ground during the session here against EUR, AUD (highest since December 2, 2024), GBP (highest since February of 2022), NZD and CAD. USD/JPY and USD/CHF are not a lot net changed. Yen and CHF crosses are thus higher.

There were a couple of impactful early items of news:

  • the readouts from both Iran and the US were positive on nuclear talks, and indeed Trump confirmed this in later remarks saying the US had very good talks with Iran. "We had some real progress".
  • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke in a call with Trump on Sunday. Trump agreed to delay tariffs on the EU until July 9, a reprieve from the threatened 50% levies set to go into effect on June 1

That second point was the more impactful, it weighed on the dollar and underpinned risk (see above FX comments) for the session. While US markets will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday US equity index futures traded on Sunday evening on the CME’s Globex, rising on this news.

Also rising today was the yuan. Offshore yuan, CNH, hit its strongest since early November of 2024. In its reference rate setting today the People’s Bank of China flipped its damping around to slow the yuan’s rise (or support the USD if you’d prefer that perspective!). A rising yuan is supportive for AUD (at the margin it decreases the cost of Australian products in China).

1 hour USDCNY candles wrap 26 May 2025 2
Source: Forex Live