Peace in Europe coming soon? – Market wrap for the North American session - August 19

[Ben Graham]

Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for August 19

After the consecutive days of White House invitations of key leaders, Markets start to price in a much higher chance of at least a truce which could be evolving to a longer-standing peace in Eastern Europe.

And the pricing in is coming for the right reasons:
The White House just announced that Putin accepts to meet Zelenskyy in person. The rest will be to see when and where the meeting will take place.

Some compromise will have to be found, but in any case, this is progress towards the resolution of the most deadly conflict in Europe since the World War 2 – with around 500,000 deaths.

In other markets, the Spanish Government yields have been rising tremendously since 12:30 PM ET – The particular reasons why are yet to be discovered, but in the meantime, some sources indicate that it may be due to some problem with droughts and wildfires, but yields don't rise just on that.

Read More: Silver (XAG) and other metals fall as Markets price-in ease in Ukraine War

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, August 19, 2025 – Source: TradingView

The US Dollar and related assets such as US Bonds caught a bid in today's session as the United States and Donald Trump have regained some credibility after the successful meetings with the EU leaders and Putin.

This comes at the cost of Tech-related assets and Metals that had performed so well in the past few months.

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, August 19 – Source: OANDA Labs

Consistent with the mean-reversion from yearly flows seen in Markets today, the JPY is surprisingly the strongest of majors today.

The US Dollar is of course a winner as profit-taking continues in other currencies. Let's see if this turns into the beginning of a new trend.

You can check our latest article on the US Dollar right here.

A look at Economic data releasing in tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

The week really starts now in terms of Economic data after nothing new today (except for the geopolitical news).

The evening session is fairly full with Japan's trade data followed by the New Zealand Rate Decision (with a cut highly expected).

Tomorrow will also be packed, between the Jackson Hole Symposium starting.

In terms of economic data, the overnight data begins at 2:00 A.M. with German PPI and UK Inflation.

A few FED Speeches are expected towards the afternoon and the (not-too-market moving) FOMC minutes are releasing at 14:00 P.M.

The Jackson Hole Symposium starts tomorrow evening but most of the action is from Thursday to Saturday!

Safe Trades!

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