- It’s the last trading day of this week, which has been mostly all about USD weakness, range trading in OIL and wild swings in GOLD. JPY has been the strongest currency of the week, followed by CHF and then USD.
- Currencies: JPY strength is not stopping against USD, with the pair now having broken so many significant support levels that intervention rumors are becoming more frequent. The pair has reached 1.5 year lows at 117.67 however profit taking have helped it regain 100 pips at time of writing. Elsewhere, EUR is looking for a momentum booster to help it establish itself above 1.14 while GBPUSD looks to be more under pressure probably due to Brexit fears. As a result EURGBP is trading at its highest levels since June 2014. The commodity currencies were sold yesterday, but recovered slightly in Asia. AUD/USD rose from 0.75 to 0.7540, while NZD/USD reached a high of 0.6790, up 25 pips on the day.
- Stock markets: Wall Street retreated with DJIA and S&P 500 indices losing -0.98% and -1.2% respectively. Shares in Asia fell across the board in morning session today. Having started the week on a very strong foot, most stock markets ended in the red yesterday as worries on global growth returned to the forefront.
- OIL and GOLD: GOLD has posted session highs at $1243 yesterday but is trading at $1236 at time of writing. Sentiment has turned in favor of GOLD due to the renewed sell off in stock markets. AS an alternative means of investment, GOLD is favored when this happens. Immediate support lies at 1230 while 1245 is a resistance. OIL has given up its gains yesterday from $38+ to $36 but now is trading back up at $38 again. The OIL prices are mostly sentiment driven (follow stocks) rather than a supply and demand issue.
- Today the data calendar is fairly quiet. In the UK we will wait for the release of UK Industrial production for February while in Europe, ECB’s Mersch and Nowotny will be speaking, while the FED’s Dudley and George will present their views on the US economy.
