Category: US/Midday Session Brief

US Session Forex Brief, April 4 – Markets on Standby Ahead of the US Employment Report Tomorrow

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Yesterday markets turned bullish after the positive services data from China and the Eurozone. The reversal in Chinese services and manufacturing as well as the jump in Eurozone services yesterday brought a ray of hope, suggesting that the softening trend of the global economy might be coming to an end, hence the rally in risk assets such as stock markets and the commodity Dollars. But, summer doesn’t come with just one flower, there’s an old saying. Just one round of positive data doesn’t change the trend of the overall global economy. Traders know that, so they have stopped buying anything since yesterday. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, April 4 – Markets on Standby Ahead of the US Employment Report Tomorrow” →

US Session Forex Brief, April 3 – Markets Turn Higher as Sentiment Improves on Services Data

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Today we had some positive fundamentals coming out which have affected financial markets positively. In the Asian session, the Chinese Caixin services PMI indicator jumped more than three full points higher, beating expectations. That comes after the bullish reversal in Chinese manufacturing data we saw on Sunday and earlier this week, which suggests that the slowdown in the Chinese economy might be coming to an end. After all, manufacturing turned into expansion in March after contracting during the previous three months, and services showed a considerable expansion as well. Besides that, we heard rumours from Financial Times today that China and the US are getting very close to a final trade agreement. These events helped the sentiment turn positive today. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, April 3 – Markets Turn Higher as Sentiment Improves on Services Data” →

US Session Forex Brief, April 2 – The USD Remains the Strongest Currency in Forex but Cryptos Outperform

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

During the Asian session today we had the meeting from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Building approvals from Australia were released a few hours before the meeting and they showed an impressive 19.1% jump which is the biggest increase since July 2012. But, that doesn’t fare well for the AUD because house prices have been declining in Australia and more construction would mean even lower prices as the supply side increases.

The RBA shifted from slightly hawkish to neutral/dovish in the previous meeting, so it was interesting for AUD traders to see where they stood this time. The RBA solidified their neutral bias today and it put more emphasis on risks to the economy. This left analysts thinking that the RBA might turn even more dovish in the next meeting, although it depends how the data and the global economy will perform until then, I assume. Nonetheless, the Aussie turned even more bearish and it is the weakest currency today.

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US Session Forex Brief, April 1 – Markets Trying to Fool Us on Fools Day

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Today is April 1 which means Fools Day and it seems like markets are playing the fools game with us today. EUR/USD has turned bullish today which doesn’t seem right since the economic data from the Eurozone today was horrible once again. The final reading of the manufacturing PMI reports for Germany, France and the Eurozone dipped even lower than the prelim reading two weeks ago which sent the Euro tumbling. This reinforced the idea that the Eurozone economy, and particularly the manufacturing sector, is heading towards the abyss.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 29 – Risk Sentiment Improves as Theresa May Gathers More MPs to Support Her Brexit Deal

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

The market sentiment turned quite negative last week and this week markets were trying to make their minds up whether to remain negative and bearish or the sentiment could turn positive and the markets would turn bullish. Although, the negativity mostly prevailed this week as risk currencies kept declining. Today markets seem to have made their minds up as they have turned bullish with stock markets making new highs for the week; that can be observed in DAX30 which broke above the resistance at 11,500 points.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 28 – US Bulls Back in Charge Despite Weaker US GDP Figures

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

The day started today with the ANZ business confidence report being released in New Zealand which showed yet another deterioration. It improved at the end of last year after being massively negative at around -50 points, although it started deteriorating again last month and this month it fell further from -30.9 points to -39 points. Yesterday the Reserve Bank of New Zealand turned dovish after four major central banks did so earlier this month and today’s business confidence report justifies the shift, which turns the big picture quite bearish for the NZD now.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 27 – Risk Sentiment Sours and Turns Positive Again in European Session

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

During the second half of last week the sentiment turned really negative in financial markets and stock markets declined considerably while safe haven assets such as Gold and the JPY rallied. Although, this week the sentiment started to improve and despite being cautious, markets reversed back up again, albeit slowly. But, today we saw another shift in the market sentiment during the European session. Stock markets dipped more than 100 pips lower because of that and USD/JPY declined nearly 50 pips. There was nothing which could have sparked this shift but that’s what markets do when they are agitated. You don’t need anything to spark panic.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 26 – Uncertainty Continues to Dominate Markets as Global Economic Weakness Gets More Confirmation

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Financial markets continue to be uncertain this week as well. Last week, the uncertainty increased after the FED turned neutral during the Wednesday meeting which indicated that the global economy is really at a bad momentum right now, which could even turn to be another global recession. That turned the sentiment negative, sending safe havens higher, although today we’re seeing a bit of a reversal on them as the sentiment improves somewhat. Stock markets are also off yesterday’s lows but they still look uncertain which direction to take. They’re not making either new highs for the day nor new lows.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 25 – Big Picture Remains Gloomy for Eurozone Economy Despite Despite an Increase in Business Climate

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Last week the market sentiment turned negative again for the second time this month, after it did so for the first time at the beginning of March. In the first week of this month, it was geopolitics which turned the sentiment negative as the India-Pakistan and China-Australia tensions increased. Last week, economics hurt the sentiment as the FED became the fourth major central bank to shift from hawkish, to neutral or dovish.

Besides that, the manufacturing reports from Germany and the Eurozone showed a deeper contraction which made the bigger picture gloomier for the Eurozone economy. Donald Trump did his part as well, pushing for tariffs on European autos right after the terrible manufacturing numbers were released, so we left markets on quite a dovish mode as the week closed.

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US Session Forex Brief, March 21 – Stocks Tumble, Safe Havens Climb as Sentiment Continues to Remain Negative

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Yesterday was the FED meeting in the evening. The US economy has improved somewhat in the last couple of months after seeing some soft signs in the winter period, so if anything, the FED would sound a bit more hawkish than in the previous meeting. But we got a surprise as the FED turned more dovish and now markets expect an interest rate cut next year more than a rate hike. Here are rate move expectations compared on tables from this meeting and the previous one:

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