US Session Forex Brief, Dec 10 – Brexit Vote is Off, but Safe Havens Stay Put

Posted on December 10, 2018December 10, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Everyone was growing increasingly excited as we headed towards one of the major steps to finalize Brexit at long last. The British Parliament was set to vote on the agreement between the EU and Theresa May tomorrow evening and from May’s comments, it looked like we were heading for that. Theresa May’s spokesperson repeated a while ago that the UK Government will go ahead with the vote tomorrow, but only a few minutes later, comments from various news sources started pouring out suggesting that the vote will be called off. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 10 – Brexit Vote is Off, but Safe Havens Stay Put” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 7 – Markets Waiting on OPEC+ and US Employment Report

Posted on December 7, 2018December 7, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Alright, the OPEC+ meeting is finally underway today. It started about five hours ago and the participants have taken a break now after the morning talks offered no breakthrough. To do a quick recap, Saudi Arabia wasn’t very confident about reaching a deal today, even though Russia offered to cut production by around 200 million barrels per day, which is higher than the first proposal of 150 million barrels. But, only if OPEC agrees to cut production by more than 1 million barrels which doesn’t seem likely for OPEC. OPEC is aiming to reach an agreement on a million barrel cut together with non-OPEC countries, including Russia. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 7 – Markets Waiting on OPEC+ and US Employment Report” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 6 – OPEC and Oil in Focus Today

Posted on December 6, 2018December 6, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Oil has been under a lot of attention recently. Oil prices have been on a slippery slope in the last two months, but everything was fine until a few weeks ago because the consensus was that the uptrend of the last two years wasn’t going to be challenged. But, it turned out that the uptrend wasn’t that strong and global fundamentals were more important than just the market sentiment. WTI crude Oil broke below $50 last week, but talk of production cut offered some relief for Oil which helped Oil reverse higher for a few days. But, it only lasted that long and Oil is back on the downtrend now. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 6 – OPEC and Oil in Focus Today” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 5 – Brexit or No Brexit, Deal or No Deal

Posted on December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Today has been a pretty strange day in forex, especially for the GBP and GBP traders. Last night, the UK Prime Minister lost the vote on contempt in the British Parliament. This is a sign that Theresa May’s Brexit deal won’t pass the Parliament vote next Tuesday, so that is supposed to be negative for the GBP.

In fact, the GBP lost nearly 200 pips yesterday in the US session after it had gained more than 100 pips during the European session. Today, [[GBP/USD]] surged around 130 pips higher so far even though the services PMI report was pretty horrible. So, what’s the story behind this move today? Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 5 – Brexit or No Brexit, Deal or No Deal” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 4 – The Demand Dries Up for the USD

Posted on December 4, 2018December 4, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The US Dollar has been in demand during this year, but today, it seems that demand for the USD has dried up completely. That is strange after FED’s Chairman Jerome Powell delivered some hawkish comments last night on a speech in the FED’s website. He didn’t mention the monetary policy and rate hikes, but the comments on the economy were pretty hawkish. He confirmed that wages are starting to pick up as we have also seen in recent months, while the unemployment is at multi-decade lows. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 4 – The Demand Dries Up for the USD” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 3 – Markets Feel Better After the G20 Summit, But Don’t Get Carried Away

Posted on December 3, 2018December 3, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The G20 summit is now over and it ended up much better than a lot of people were expecting. We didn’t get any of the usual surprises from Donald Trump to shock the markets like in the last few previous summits. That was a relief for risk assets and the risk currencies which opened with a bullish gap higher this morning. Although, the jump came mainly due to the truce between US and China. There were comments from both sides that they finally reached an agreement, although we don’t have the agreement yet. So, we don’t know if this an official deal or just a verbal agreement between Donald Trump and the Chinese President Xi. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 3 – Markets Feel Better After the G20 Summit, But Don’t Get Carried Away” →

US Session Forex Brief Nov 30 – Markets in Limbo Ahead of the G20 Summit

Posted on November 30, 2018November 30, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The G20 summit is set to begin today, although it is taking place in Argentina so it’s not morning yet there, so we haven’t got any news yet. But, forex traders are already sidelined because you never know how the summit will end up with Donald Trump in there.

In fact, this summit might just be called the Trump-Xi summit as some economists are referring to it. The trade war between the US and China has precipitated and we will see tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on top of the $50 billion that are already in place.

Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief Nov 30 – Markets in Limbo Ahead of the G20 Summit” →

US Session Forex Brief Nov 29 – Markets Unsure After Powell and the Approaching Brexit Vote

Posted on November 29, 2018November 29, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Yesterday, the financial markets were waiting for the FED Chairman Jerome Powell to hold his speech in the afternoon. Today, a couple of sessions after his speech, the market is still uncertain what to think. The speech was pretty similar to recent ones we have heard from FED officials, apart from a couple of comments which sent the USD crashing lower for more than 100 pips against all major currencies. Those comments were “interest rates are near neutral rates” and “There’s no preset schedule for rate hikes“. Actually, the comments weren’t exactly like this, but that’s what I can put together right now and you get the meaning. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief Nov 29 – Markets Unsure After Powell and the Approaching Brexit Vote” →

US Session Forex Brief November 28 – Sentiment Turns Positive Ahead of the G20 Summit, But Markets Remain Cautious

Posted on November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The G20 Summit is approaching and financial markets seem to be adjusting themselves ahead of that meeting. There are certain events which might increase the risk in the days to come, but for now, markets are on a slight risk-on mode. Stock markets are a bit higher today, USD/JPY has been totally bullish this week, while Gold has turned bearish today.

The risks are the G20 meeting as we mentioned, the US tariffs on cars which exclude only Mexican and Canadian produced motor vehicles and the FED Chairman Powell’s speech later this afternoon. The US car tariffs were expected to come in spring next year but they might be applied as soon as next week.

Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief November 28 – Sentiment Turns Positive Ahead of the G20 Summit, But Markets Remain Cautious” →

US Session Forex Brief November 27 – Mixed Markets in European Session

Posted on November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

As the title suggests, there has been uncertainty in the financial markets today during the European session. Mind you, the day started with some volatility in risk assets as comments from China were lost in translation and we ended up with some fake news. The US President Donald Trump had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart last night and a Chinese official commented today that an agreement had been reached. The stock markets as well as the risk currencies jumped higher. The Aussie was the first to jump on news that the trade war might be over.

Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief November 27 – Mixed Markets in European Session” →