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...
It would seem EURUSD is in consolidation ahead of the Fed and ECB events this week.
It appeared to be flirting with a breakout higher but it wasn't long until bulls abandoned ship, ahead of the recent highs in fact, in a sign that they had little confidence of achieving a substantial breakout ahead of the rate decisions.
Given the amount of uncertainty around...
The British pound has had a rather sleepy week, and the lack of activity has continued in Friday trade, as GBP/USD is hovering at the 1.32 line.
It has been a light calendar week for the UK, and today's data dump didn't have any effect on the drifting pound. The GDP report for September came in at 4.6% y/y, well short of the consensus of 6.6%. Manufacturing...
The pound has continued to push lower in recent days but continues to lack momentum, which could point to further weakness in the sell-off.
The most recent low came on reduced momentum again which suggests a corrective move may not be far away. It's worth noting that divergences between price and oscillators aren't reversal indicators on their own, rather a...
Gold has been struggling for direction for a couple of weeks now, which is surprising as it's one of the few instruments that hasn't seen significant volatility since the Omicron announcement.
That may be because the outcome isn't clear if the new variant does turn out to be as worrying as first feared. Central banks are in no position to just turn the taps on as...
The euro is trading lower against the dollar again after a brief rebound late last month. But was the rebound brief or is there more to come?
While the one-hour chart appears to show no shortage of momentum, the latest daily candle appears to indicate some hesitation. That appears to be contradictory, but the fact that this happened so close to the prior lows may...
The euro has been trending lower against the pound all year but could that be about to change as it draws to a close?
The pair has recovered well over the last few weeks and while the top of the descending channel is arguably the level it needs to overcome to break that trend, a strong signal could come sooner.
The 200/233-day SMA band has been capping rallies...
It's been a rough time for the pound, particularly against the yen and this week has seen it cross into bearish territory.
The pair had been on a strong uptrend but a weakening of the UK economy and pared-back interest rate expectations for the Bank of England started the decline from the highs which was finished off last Friday by the Omicron...
