Last December, the FED entered a cycle of monetary tightening when they delivered their first interest rate hike. But then the global financial market turbulence reared again in February and the US economic recovery lagged during the first quarter. As a result, the FED turned dovish again and instead of the four interest rate hikes that the market was expecting this year, they have only promised two. Some market participants lowered their expectations further to just one hike for 2016, and the June rate hike was entirely wiped from the table.

Everything is swell for Dudley & Co

But, yesterday the FED FOMC minutes from the April meeting were published and despite the neutral tone of the statement, the comments made from the FED members during that meeting leaned on the hawkish side. Many saw an improvement of the economy in the last two months from the weak winter period. The improvement signalled the potential for a June interest rate hike. They did ask to see some more improvement in the US economy until June, and they haven’t disappointed. The US consumer sentiment picked up and retail sales rocketed as well, besides the improvement in the global financial markets. So, if the things keep getting better we may just see an interest rate hike in June. Anyway, this suited us well as our GBP/USD sell forex signal hit take profit and our long-term EUR/USD sell forex signal is looking a lot better as the days go by.