Forex today in Asia this Monday was mainly driven by the risk sentiment, with the Asian equities tracking their Wall Street counterparts higher, in the wake of disappointing US wage growth numbers. Therefore, we saw the USD/JPY reaching for a test of the 107 handle before coming under aggressive selling pressure, as uncertainty over the […]
Safe-haven Yen rebounds on Japan politics, a quiet session ahead Read More »
The March Beige Book maintained that US economic growth continued at a modest to moderate pace, but some of the language regarding wage growth and prices have changed. The March report notes that wage and price pressures picked up between January and March in many districts, where employers have raised waged and expanded benefit packages
As it is known, U.S. President Donald Trump restated his attention to place big tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, warning the European Union of the impact of ‘big tax’ for not treating the United States well in terms of trade. On his comment, the International Monetary Funds’ Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said on
Main focus remains on the ‘trade war’ and the issues surrounding ‘Brexit’ Read More »
Yesterday we saw a bundle of news coming from Australia, where most traders were concentrating on the RBA and the decision regarding the cash rate. As the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to keep the rate unchanged at 1.50%, Aussie fell of daily high. In addition, the Australian retail sales rose less than expected, increasing
Growth in the UK service sector picked up pace and signaled the strongest rate of service sector output growth for four months, the latest report from Markit Economics showed yesterday. UK services PMI was up from 53.0 in January and better than forecasted (53.3) coming at 54.5. The business activity rose at the fastest pace
The Euro witnessed a mixed start to the week, initially having received a boost following the weekend’s German SPD’s vote in favor of the coalition deal. However, the upside was short-lived as sentiment soured on the Italian election’s projected outcome of a hung parliament, with both the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League party
The UK Markit PMI for manufacturing held a pleasant surprise despite the fact that it did not rise, but it held better than expected (55.1) coming at 55.2 down from 55.3. Still, it is the third consecutive decline and compares with the 56.9 average in Q4 17 and 55.9 average for all last year. The
The Italian election is due to be held this coming Sunday, 4th of March 2018 and Italians are preparing to choose a new Parliament and Prime Minister. Italy is not well-known for its political stability given the fact that it has had more than 60 governments and numerous prime ministers since World War II. This
February 2018 has proven to be one of the most volatile and tumultuous months for equity markets, witnessed in many years. The month has closed out with the largest fall in the main equity markets (DJIA and SPX), seen in two years. The February fall for the DJIA is -4.28%, the SPX has registered a
The economic news calendar was dominated by American fundamentals on Tuesday with the calendar releases and political events. The recently appointed Fed chair Jerome Powell wasted no time, during his testimony in front of a House committee, when suggesting that both he and the Fed think asset prices may be too high and inflation may
