On the final day of 2021, the major pairs are stuck in tight ranges. The euro is trading quietly at 1.1310 in the European session.
This holiday week was characterized by a dearth of economic releases and illiquid markets. That left the markets vulnerable to volatility due to market-movement headlines, but in the end, the currency markets had a generally quiet...
The euro lost ground earlier on Thursday but has recovered most of these losses. EUR/USD is currently trading at 1.1337, down 0.08% on the day.
With a very light economic calendar this week, the markets are being driven by sentiment, which essentially means the latest Omicron headlines. The markets remain fairly upbeat, despite the explosion in Omicron...
The US dollar has again pushed the Japanese yen above the 115 line, after breaking through the symbolic level on Wednesday.
The US dollar has been showing broad weakness but has managed to push the yen back above the 115 level. Earlier in the day, USD/JPY rose to 115.22, marking a 5-week high. There are two reasons why the yen hasn't been able to take advantage...
The Swiss franc flexed some muscle in the days leading into Christmas, but the currency is almost unchanged this week, trading around 0.9170.
The Omicron variant continues to spread as countries scramble to deal with the newest wave of Covid. The good news is that most reports have shown that Omicron is believed to be far milder than Delta, which hopefully means...
The Japanese yen continues to lose ground. The yen suffered a third straight losing week, and the trend has continued on Monday. With USD/JPY currently trading around the 114.70 level, the 115 line is vulnerable. The pair last breached this symbolic level a month ago, but the dollar couldn't consolidate above this level.
Japan's retail sales...
Tis the week of Christmas, which means eggnog, crackling fireplaces and thin liquidity in the markets. With Australian markets closed on Monday, the Aussie has shown little movement today and this should continue in the North American session.
There are no Australian events on this week's calendar, so any movement of AUD/USD will come from events abroad. The US...
It has been a very good week for the British pound, which is up 1.29%. So good, in fact, that this will likely mark the pound's best week of 2021. On Thursday, GBP/USD punched above the 1.34 line for the first time in a month.
The pound's newfound strength is a result of stronger risk appetite. When Omicron first appeared on the scene several weeks ago, there...
The Omicron variant continues to rage through Europe and the US, but the markets are in a positive mood. Why? There is a feeling that Omicron is much milder than Delta, which means that a wave of Omicron may get a lot of people sick, but it will not kill thousands and overload hospitals with severely ill patients. Time will tell if this is an accurate diagnosis....
The markets were treated to some positive news out of Japan, which raised its growth projections for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in April 2022. The government is projecting growth of 3.2%, up sharply from the July estimate of 2.2%. The upward revision comes on the heels of the supplementary budget which was approved in parliament earlier this week.
On...
The Canadian dollar is trading quietly ahead of the release of Canada's GDP for October later today. The loonie took advantage of broad US weakness on Wednesday, posting gains of 0.53%, its best daily showing since December 7th.
Canada's economy was stagnant in September, with a paltry gain of 0.1%. October, however, is expected to show a strong rebound....
The New Zealand dollar has climbed above the 0.68 level on Wednesday. In the North American session, NZD/USD is trading at 0.6816, up 0.65% on the day. The currency has jumped 1.09% this week.
Volatility is the name of the game, at least in the month of December. With market participants eyeing Christmas and the markets marked by illiquidity, we have been seeing...
The UK economy grew 1.1% in the third quarter, revised downwards from the initial estimate of 1.3%. The expansion was led by robust consumer spending, which beat expectations with a gain of 2.7% as lockdowns were lifted in July.
Investors didn't seem perturbed from the downward revision, as the British pound has moved higher today. Still, it's doubtful that...
Last week could have provided the catalyst for some big moves in the currency markets but it seems to have passed many of them by.
GBPUSD had been preparing for potential volatility and instead what we got was largely predictable - BoE moved a little sooner but the outlook is as it was, and the Fed did what we all expected it to.
Which has left the cable pair...
The end of the year is drawing near and some markets may finally be in holiday mode.
EURUSD has been range-bound for a month and last week could have provided the catalyst to change that - Fed accelerating tapering and bringing forward rate hikes, ECB ending PEPP - but instead, it just confirmed that markets were well positioned.
Now it seems they may be...
With both the ECB and BoE meetings now behind us, how do we assess the impact on the currencies and what it means going forward?
Interestingly, there were no major surprises on either side. The BoE moved slightly earlier while the ECB tweaked its asset purchases, with the result being that the PEPP comes to an end in March while the support it provided is only...
It goes without saying that US tech stocks have gone from strength to strength the last two years and while there have been small setbacks along the way, the trend remains very strong.
While they suffered along with the rest early in the pandemic, it soon became clear that those companies that were most future-proof and better placed to thrive in an environment...
We've seen a bit of a recovery in GBPJPY over the last couple of weeks as risk appetite has rebounded in the markets. But how much further can it run?
What's helped the move more recently is improving odds on a BoE rate hike on Thursday. It's still widely expected that the MPC will vote against hiking this time and then do so in February when they have a much...
The euro has been on an impressive run against the pound recently and as you'd expect, the rally stalled around the 200/233-day SMA band. But it may not be over yet.
The pair was always likely to see significant resistance here, having done so in the past, but the important thing is what follows next.
It's worth noting that the Bank of England and European...
