Naeem Aslam
Zaye Capital Markets
Dow futures are trading sharply lower today and traders are highly likely to focus on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance. This week is particularly big for the Forex market as we will get to hear from the Federal Reserve’s Chairman, Jerome Powell and the ECB president Christine Lagarde In addition t0 this, later this week, we will also have the interest rate decision from the Bank of England which is going to have an influence on Sterling.
BOJ
The Bank of Japan has maintained its monetary policy and extended the time frame for its relief programme designed to address the effects of the pandemic. The Japanese central bank stated that it will continue to monitor the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and is prepared to implement additional relief measures when necessary.
Dow Jones
Many blue-chip stocks in the Dow index rose by nearly 1%. Nike, Caterpillar, and Home Depot were among the best performers, while McDonald's, Johnson & Johnson, and 3M were among the laggards.
Asian stock markets
The Nikkei 225 fell nearly 4% in Monday trade, leading to regional losses. The Fed's meeting had an impact on Asian markets as well. The Shanghai Composite Index dipped by nearly 0.22%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 1.35% while the Seoul Kospi declined 1.08% as at 12.51 AM EST.
Coronavirus update
The United States has been successful in controlling the outbreak of cases due to an effective vaccination programme. According to the CDC, as of Monday, approximately 45.1% of Americans had been fully vaccinated, with 53.3% having received at least one dose. Since January, the number of new cases reported per day has decreased drastically, with 4,422 new cases and 86 new deaths reported on June 20.
The information is purely for education purposes only and cannot be perceived as an advise.
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EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data
Another sign of the good health of the US economy came in response to firm flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs, which in turn reinforced further the already strong performance of the US Dollar, relegating EUR/USD to the 1.0400 neighbourhood on Friday.
GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar
Poor results from the UK docket kept the British pound on the back foot on Thursday, hovering around the low-1.2500s in a context of generalized weakness in the risk-linked galaxy vs. another outstanding day in the Greenback.
Gold keeps the bid bias unchanged near $2,700
Persistent safe haven demand continues to prop up the march north in Gold prices so far on Friday, hitting new two-week tops past the key $2,700 mark per troy ounce despite extra strength in the Greenback and mixed US yields.
Geopolitics back on the radar
Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine caused renewed unease in the markets this week. Putin signed an amendment to Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows Russia to use nuclear weapons for retaliating against strikes carried out with conventional weapons.
Eurozone PMI sounds the alarm about growth once more
The composite PMI dropped from 50 to 48.1, once more stressing growth concerns for the eurozone. Hard data has actually come in better than expected recently – so ahead of the December meeting, the ECB has to figure out whether this is the PMI crying wolf or whether it should take this signal seriously. We think it’s the latter.
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