- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration was close to “major tax reform.”. Combined with good company quarterly results, The Dow (+0.85%) rallied 134 points while the S&P500 (+0.76%) gained 17 points.
- Pre French election concern with a suspected terrorist attack in Paris overnight which left a police officer dead. First round of elections this Sunday. Polls showing that Le Pen would lose to anyone in the second round of voting.
- Monday morning could potentially see market gaps in EUR and GBP related pairs, and the CAC (+1.47%) indices.
- Gains in the European and US session across the Euro and Pound were given back in late trading. Uncertainty on the French election outcome is generating some EUR/USD volatility.
- A double top in the EUR/USD hitting 1.077, and consolidation of gains in the GBP/USD after Tuesday night’s rally. From Tuesday’s low to high, GBP/USD has retraced ~25% of gains and is keeping shorts under pressure. Outperformance in this evenings UK retail sales will see further short squeezing – April figure typically poor however.
- Gold taking a breather as it range trades around 1,277 – 1,283. Next key support at 1,260 should geopolitical concerns continue to subside and the rally pullback.
- Aussie dollar reversed some of this week’s losses trading as high as 0.7547. No compelling reasons to be long the AUD/USD and selling bounces the favoured trade for now. Next weeks’ CPI will be critical for further direction.
- A rise in oil production combined with comments from oil producers that output cuts from OPEC likely helped consolidate recent losses in US Oil, currently trading $50.76, having given back all its gains during April.
Today’s Economic calendar (AEST)
- 10:30am Japan Manufacturing PMI
- 5:00-6:00pm Eurozone Flash PMI’s
- 6:30pm UK Retail Sales
- 10:30pm Canadian CPI m/m
