24/ 09/ 2017

Week Ahead | US data and Fed speakers to dominate; limited risk seen from German elections

On last Wednesday, The Federal Reserve announced the beginning of reducing its balance sheet, as expected. They also intend to raise rates in December and three times in 2018, something that caught the markets somewhat off guard and sent the dollar higher. Yellen and her colleagues see low inflation as a “mystery” but at least for now, see it as rising.Doubts over the chances of a hike eventually limited the dollar’s gains. In the UK, the pound slid on May’s speech but still looks strong on the prospects of a rate hike.The war of words around North Korea triggered only limited dips on USD/JPY.

This week’s focus will be on the outcome of German Election, US Durable Goods, US GDP figures and Euro zone inflation data.

20/ 09/ 2017

Will Yellen Help or Hurt the Dollar?

Euro continued its advance against other currencies while Pound was the worst performer of the day. Economic surveys from Euro zone suggests that economic confidence in the euro zone is strong with the German elections around the weekend. With everything going against it, the only thing that is positive for Dollar is the record breaking moves in U.S. stocks and a hope that the Fed could confirm its plan to raise interest rates one more time this year.

Today is an important day in the FED calendar as this event will move the market either way. The focus will be on what Yellen has to say about FED Balance sheet normalization, weak inflation and whether the Interest rate hike in December will happen or not. 

19/ 09/ 2017

Markets on Wait and Watch Mode ahead of FED Event

The Dollar was the top performer yesterday with many geo political events supporting its advance against other currencies. Furthermore, US Treasury yields rose, on hopes the Fed will give some clues on how and when it will begin unwinding its balance sheet at tomorrows FED event.

Today is a calm day in terms of Economic data as we will only see 3 mid-tier reports from Euro zone and USA. Most markets will be on wait and watch mode ahead of Tomorrow’s Risk event.

17/ 09/ 2017

Week Ahead | Here Comes the FED

The US dollar managed to end last week in a positive note despite a lower-than-expected retail sales reading on Friday and flat US inflation data on Thursday. Economic data has begun to reflect the impact of Hurricane Harvey, and later in the month, the effects of storm Irma will be taken into account.

The pound was one of the few currencies that gained against the dollar after the Bank of England left rates unchanged on Thursday, but said rate hike could home sooner than expected boosting the currency against the USD. Central banks will remain in the spotlight this week with the Fed and the Bank of Japan set to publish their September monetary policies.