The RBA sent a hawkish message to the markets, as the minutes from the April meeting provided a strong hint that a rate hike is coming sooner than had been expected. The minutes cited rising inflation and a tightening labor markets as developments that have "brought forward the likely timing of the first increase in interest rates".
The last time the RBA raised...
It was another rough week at the office for the Japanese yen, as USD/JPY fell 1.67%. The crumpling yen hasn't eked out a daily gain since March and has extended its losses today. In the North American session, USD/JPY is trading at 126.88, up 0.42% on the day.
The yen is essentially at the mercy of the US/Japan rate differential, and with that differential...
The Australian dollar has extended its losses today, as AUD/USD trades just above the 0.74 line in the European session.
It has been a rough stretch for the currency, which has managed just one winning session since April 5th. The Australian dollar has been hurt by the Fed-powered US dollar as well as concerns about China's growth, as the country grapples with an...
Australia's employment report was respectable, and the Australian dollar's reaction was muted. The economy created 17.9 thousand new jobs in March, down from 77.4 prior and shy of the estimate of 40.0 thousand. The unemployment rate remained at a sizzling 4.0%, the lowest since 2008.
Today's numbers are unlikely to shed much light on the timeline for the RBA's...
The RBNZ came out swinging on Wednesday, as it hiked the Cash Rate to 1.50%, with an oversized hike of 50-basis points. Ordinarily, a sharp rate hike by a central bank would prop up the local currency, but that was not the case today. The central bank seemed to hit the right buttons to show its hawkish stance, with its largest rate hike since April 2000....
German data was in the spotlight on Wednesday, with the release of German inflation and ZEW Economic Sentiment. The numbers were worrying, but the euro's response was muted, as the currency trades in the mid-1.08 range.
German CPI for March came in as expected, at 7.3% YoY. Still, this was a large jump from the 5.1% gain in February and marks the highest...
Gold has been in consolidation for days but it may be breaking out of this at the end of the week.
The range has been tightening in recent days, even at a time when other markets were seeing plenty of volatility on the back of another hawkish move by the Federal Reserve.
That at one time would have been a negative for gold as higher rates are typically...
The New Zealand dollar has extended its losses on Thursday and dropped below the 69 line. In the North American session, NZD/USD is trading at 0.6887, down 0.42% on the day.
The hawkishness of the FOMC minutes was not a surprise, given that the markets had heard this from Fed members George and Brainard a day earlier. Still, a hawkish Fed that is accelerating its...
Bitcoin appeared to have made a very bullish move last week when it finally broke above $45,500 but since then, it's all been downhill.
Sentiment in the broader markets has dipped in recent days and bitcoin has suffered as a result. Even prior to this, it failed to capitalise on the initial breakout which may have been a sign of what was to come.
While the trend...
The New Zealand dollar continues to rally and is up 0.82% this week. Earlier in the day, NZD/USD punched above the symbolic 70 line and rose to 0.7034, its highest level since November 2021, before retreating lower.
The US Services PMI for March pointed to continuing expansion, with a reading of 58.3. This was shy of the consensus of 58.9 but an improvement from...
The Aussie dollar has performed well against the greenback since early February and while it appeared to have lost some momentum recently, it may have rediscovered that today.
The pair ran into resistance around the late-October highs last week and has been in consolidation since but as you can see today, it's spiked higher and the MACD and stochastic on the...
Inflation has been skyrocketing in the US and UK, giving the Fed and BoE plenty of sleepless nights. Inflation levels had been lower in the eurozone, and ECB President Christine Lagarde has not made inflation a priority, arguing that high inflation would ease. Meanwhile, eurozone inflation for March jumped to 7.5% YoY, up from 5.9% in February and above the...
The British economy performed better than expected in the fourth quarter. Final GDP rose by 1.3% in Q4 of 2021, upwardly revised from the first quarterly estimate of a 1.0% gain. Final GDP beat the forecast of 1.0%. On an annualized basis, GDP in 2021 jumped 7.4%, a massive turnaround from -9.3% in 2020.
The economy has almost completely recovered from the...
The rally in USD/JPY has massively accelerated in recent weeks as markets and the Fed have become increasingly hawkish on US interest rates.
This has happened at a time when many central banks are heading in that direction, even the ECB which at one point looked years away from interest rates above 0%. While they haven't yet conceded on the kind of rate hikes...
After a strong week, the Australian dollar has reversed directions and dropped below the 0.75 line on Monday. Investors will be keeping an eye on Australian retail sales, which will be released on Tuesday. The markets are expecting a gain of 1.0%, down from 1.8% in January.
The month of March has been kind to the Australian dollar, with sharp gains of 3.47%....
In the latest twist in the crypto space, Russian lawmaker Pavel Zavalny, claimed the country may consider accepting payment for oil and gas in bitcoin from friendly countries.
I mean, this should seriously be taken with a pinch of salt for a number of reasons. Not least Russia's widely known opposition to cryptos. Add to that the fact that one major friendly...
After a period of consolidation, gold prices have been rising again in recent days, hitting a 10-day high in the process.
This comes even as central banks signal an aggressive tightening cycle this year to combat soaring inflation and risk appetite remains healthy as Ukraine and Russia continue to engage in negotiations.
Clearly, there is still plenty of...
Oil prices have been rising once again over the last week as the EU has considered banning Russian imports and an outage on a pipeline that runs through the country reduced output by around one million barrels per day.
Sanctions imposed by the West have already caused significant disruption to Russian oil exports which could total around three million barrels per...
