It’s been a while since a Trump statement caused a shock in the markets, on Wednesday his administration put a spanner in the works of North American commerce, by threatening to exit the NAFTA free trade arrangement, which allows (largely unrestricted) open border/tariff free trade between; Canada, Mexico and the USA. The free trade area, […]
The SPX rose by 2.6% last week, in a shortened week when many investors were stumbling back to their desks. And the index continued its recent bullish momentum, rising by 0.13% on Tuesday, with the DJIA rising by 0.41%, as analysts and traders continued to price in the impact the tax reduction plan, now signed
The euro fell versus the majority of its peers during Monday’s sessions, analysts at leading banks suggested that the reason for the fall was two fold, firstly; lack lustre inflation data for the Eurozone published on Friday, suggests that the ECB won’t aggressively taper the asset purchase programme in 2018. Secondly; profit taking, as many
Last week ended with the publication of disappointing NFP jobs numbers from the USA; coming in at 148k, versus expectations of circa 190k. A peculiar number suggesting that retailers, working on ever tightening margins, laid off employees earlier than expected during the Xmas season. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1%, whilst the underemployment rate,
All the major U.S. equities; DJIA, SPX, NASDAQ, closed at record highs on Thursday, with the DJIA finally breaking through the 25,000 barrier, representing a one year return of circa 28%. The indices rose despite the USA suffering crippling weather conditions, with many businesses closed. However, equity trading in the SPX was 30% above the
The first full trading week of 2018 witnesses a return to traditional economic calendar events effecting our: FX, equity and commodity markets. It’s a busy week for Chinese, USA and European data, including several inflation figures, most notably for China and the USA. The latest production figures for the U.K. will be analysed carefully, for
On Friday January 5th at 13:30 GMT, the first Non Farm Payroll data of the year will be published. The forecast, from the economists polled by the Reuters news agency, predicts a rise of 188k for December, a fall from the 228k jobs created in November 2017, which beat the expectation of 200k. The December
All three major USA market indices reached record highs during Wednesday’s New York trading session; the DJIA, SPX and the NASDAQ rose as a consequence of positive, high impact, fundamental economic releases, that mostly beat forecasts. The ISM manufacturing index for the USA came in at 59.7 for December, construction spending rose by 0.8% in
Traders began to quietly re-engage with the FX markets, as Tokyo and Sydney opened on Monday evening/Tuesday morning. After a fractured ten day holiday period, over the Xmas and New Year period, London’s open will be closely monitored. Last week’s trading ended the year with gold (XAU/USD) finally breaking the critical 1,300 handle after slumping
FX markets reopen quietly after the New Year break Read More »
