Market Overview
Sterling Jumps as Chance of August BoE Hike Revived by Haldane
Sterling trades as the strongest one today as markets were surprised by the voting on BoE Bank Rate. With the highly respected Chief Economist Andrew Haldane voted for a hike, the chance of an August move in interest rate is heavily boosted. The statement also showed a lot of...
Sterling and Swiss Mixed ahead of BoE and SNB, Dollar Surges as Lifted by Yields
Dollar overtakes Yen as the strongest current for the week as buying merges today. Overnight's rebound in treasury yield gives the greenback a helping hand. 10 year yield gained 0.035 to close the regular session at 2.928 and it breached 2.95 in Asia. Gold also extends recent slump on...
Forex Markets Calmed in Range, Focus Turns to Central Bankers
The forex markets are relatively steady today as sentiments stabilized a bit. Yen and Sterling are so far the strongest ones today but for different reasons. The Japanese Yen is digesting this week's strong risk aversion move, and seller could gather much momentum. Meanwhile, Sterling trying to pare back...
Yen Retreats Mildly as Sentiments Stabilized, Sterling Weak ahead of BoE
Sentiments somewhat stabilized slightly in Asia as markets digest trade war triggered losses. China's Shanghai composite is losing -0.59% at the time of writing. But Nikkei and Hong Kong HSI are up 0.36% and 0.41% respectively. DOW lost -287.26 or -1.15% to close at 24700.21, but it has already...
Risk Aversion Dominates as Trade War Could Mean More than Tariffs
The financial markets are rocked by Trump's over-the-top escalation in trade spat with China. At the time of writing, FTSE is down -0.4%, DAX down -1.2% and CAC down -1.1%. Dow opens by dropping more than -300%. In the currency markets, Yen and Swiss Franc are the strongest ones...
Yen Continues to Shine as Trade Tension Escalates. AUD, NZD, CAD Suffer
Yen and Swiss Franc continue to dominate the market on risk aversion as trade tensions escalate. The US markets didn't perform too badly indeed. DOW closed just down -103.01 pts or -0.41% overnight at 24987.47. S&P was down -5.91 pts or -0.21%. NASDAQ even managed to gain 0.65 pts...
Swiss Franc and Yen Firmer on Mild Risk Aversion
Swiss Franc and Yen are trading as the strongest ones for today on mild risk aversion. A wave of buying is seen in Euro entering into US session. But for now, Euro is trading up against Dollar, Sterling and Aussie for the day only. Some attributes today's weakness in...
Yen Higher as Sentiments Weighed Down by Trade Tensions and Osaka Earthquake
Yen trades generally higher in Asian session today on mild risk aversion. Escalation of trade tension between US and China is a factor weighing on sentiments. The 6.1 earthquake in Osaka also pressures Japanese stocks. Nikkei is trading down -0.8% at the time of writing. Euro is broadly lower...
Dollar Surged on Hawkish Fed, Trade War Threat Ignored
Dollar surged broadly last week as Fed policymakers finally made up their mind on hiking a total of four times this year, as reflected in the new projections. The greenback was also helped by ECB monetary policy decision, with traders disappointed on the rate path. The headlines were then...
Stocks to Suffer, But Forex Steady as Trump Ignores Americans and Fires Another Shot in Trade War
US stocks futures are rocked by the announcement on formalizing the Section 301 tariffs against China. DOW futures point to triple digit loss at open and could threaten 25000 handle. The forex markets are relatively calm though. Euro is paring back some of yesterday's post ECB losses and takes...
Dollar Extending Post ECB Gains, Section 301 Tariffs Against China to be Formalized
Dollar is trading as the strongest one as partly helped by the post ECB selloff in Euro. In part, there were delayed reactions to the hawkish Fed announcement too, which indicates it will hike two more times this year. The greenback in extending it's strong, broad based gains in...
Euro Dives after ECB Announces to End QE this Year, But Interest Rates Will Stay Unchanged At least Through 2019 Summer
Euro drops sharply today as markets are not quite happy with ECB announcement. In particular, while deciding to end the asset purchase program this year, ECB said interest rate will remain at current level at least through 2019 summer. President Mario Draghi also sounds cautious as usual in the...
Trade War Offsets Hawkish Fed as Dollar Struggles, ECB to Take the Spotlight
Dollar got a very brief lift overnight as Fed delivered a hawkish rate hike. But it quickly lost steam as weighed down by concern over trade war between US and China. For today, the greenback is only trading slightly better than Australian Dollar, which is weighed down by its...
Dollar Soft as Markets Look Through Strong PPI to FOMC, Pound Lower on CPI Miss
Dollar is trading in soft tone in range against most major currencies except versus Yen and Sterling. The greenback shrugs off stronger than expected PPI as markets are awaiting FOMC rate hike, economic projections and press conference. Sterling is trading as the weakest one today as headline UK CPI...
Dollar Staying Range Bound as Fed Rate Hike Awaited
Dollar is generally staying in familiar range, except versus Japanese Yen as markets await FOMC rate decision today. The federal funds rate is expected to be lifted by 25bps to 1.75-2.00%. There is practically no chance for Fed to disappoint the markets. Yet, there are a number of questions...
Markets Struggle for Direction Despite Strong US CPI, Weak UK Wage Growth
The forex markets are struggling to find a clear direction today despite all the high profile events. US headline CPI jumped to 6 year high in May while core CPI also accelerated. But Dollar is getting no lift from it. UK wage growth missed expectation even though the overall...
Markets Steady as Kim Meets Trump, UK Job and US CPI to Guide
The financial markets are steadily optimistic so far this week and that can be reflected in the rebound in German bund yield and US 10 year yield. Yen is trading broadly lower today, followed by the Swiss Franc. Australian, New Zealand and US Dollar are trading mildly higher. Eyes...
Sterling Weakens after Poor Economic Data, More to Care than Kim-Trump Summit for Traders
While the spats between US and G6 countries made a lot of headlines, they're not much bothered by the market-smart investors who know what are important. The summit between North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and US president Donald Trump is currently in the spotlight. But it will likely fade...
Markets Shrug G7 Chaos and Trade War, Euro Higher on Italy
Asian markets open the week rather firmly, shrugging of the Trump triggered chaos in G7 leaders meeting over the weekend. At the time of writing, Nikkei is trading up nearly 0.6% while HK HSI is up 0.28%. Focus has quickly turned to Kim-Trump summit in Singapore but that's unlikely...
Markets to Look Through G7 to Fed Hike and ECB Judgement Day
While trade tension between the US and its allies dominated the headlines last week, Euro emerged as the strongest major currency. Receding Eurozone internal political risks was a key factor. German 10 year bund yield hit as high as 0.52, comparing to 0.186 low just two weeks ago, before...