Zahir Shah

Sterling rose versus its main peers during Monday’s trading sessions, as U.K. MPs appeared to gradually move towards a consensus requiring a softer Brexit; keeping closer ties with Europe by remaining in a customs union and having access to the single market. Votes took place on an indicative basis in the House of Commons and […]

At 4:30am U.K. time on Tuesday April 2nd, the Australian central bank, the RBA (reserve bank of Australia), will announce its latest decision regarding the country’s key interest rate, referred to as the cash rate. The widely held consensus, from the news agencies Reuters and Bloomberg, after they’ve polled their panel of economists, is for

China’s equity markets rallied as the latest Caixin manufacturing PMI from China rose marginally, the reading for March came in at 50.8, clawing its way from the 50 level, which separates expansion from contraction. The Caixin metric followed other PMIs published on Sunday, which also beat forecasts. Analysts quickly gauged that the reading might represent

Monday April 1st begins a new month and a new quarter, as a highly significant day for medium to high impact calendar news, both in Europe and the USA, will set the tone. All Monday’s data has the ability to move the market in: euro, USD and sterling and the corresponding equity indices, dependent on

The USD dollar index was on course for a 1% rise during March and a recovery of circa 1.5% from a low on March 22nd, potentially posting its best one month rise, since making gains of circa 2.5% during October 2018. The dovish tone set by the FOMC/Fed earlier in March, as they stated any

The latest GDP growth figures for the USA economy missed forecasts, when the latest figures were revealed on Thursday afternoon; QoQ growth for Q4 2018 came in at 2.2%, falling from 2.6% and missing the forecast of 2.4%. Pending home sales for February came in at -1.0%, with the annual sales figure coming in at

At 12:30pm U.K. time, on Friday March 29th, a Canadian statistics agency, attached to the government, will reveal the latest GDP growth figures for the Canadian economy. Currently at 1.10% measured up to December 2018, the forecast, from news agencies such as Reuters and Bloomberg, is for growth to make a significant improvement, predicted to

Asian markets fell during the Sydney-Asian trading session, the Shanghai Composite closed down -0.92%, whilst Japan’s Nikkei index closed down -1.61%, reducing the year to date 2019 gains, for Japan’s leading index to 5.09%. The risk off tone has remained due to global trade fears and bond yields falling. Australian and New Zealand government bond

The current account deficit in the United States has widened to -$134.4 billion in Q4 2018, from an upwardly revised -$126 billion gap in Q3, coming in above the news agency forecasts of -$130 billion. Registering the highest current account gap metric in ten years, The trade deficit in the USA narrowed to -$51.1 billion