Currencies
EUR/USD – traded slightly down even though there was an upwards move after the US data was weaker than expected, but mainly on the backdrop of the news that BOE Governor extended his term by 1 year. The data out of the Eurozone was in line with the expectation and therefore didn’t result in too much movement. Today we have important US data, but this will be overshadowed by the FOMC statement of tomorrow.
USD/JPY – the BOJ left the interest rate unchanged as was expected and also didn’t change its monetary policy. This comes even though the BOJ doesn’t think it will hit its inflation target and once more extended the timeframe for reaching this. However, the BOJ sees potential downside which makes it possible they will act in the future.
GBP/USD – was trading lower for most of the day, but saw a nice move up after reports came out that BOE Governor Carney will extend his term by 1 year, bringing some more stability. This means that he will serve until 2019 and will see through the Brexit.
AUD/USD – as expected, the RBA didn’t change the interest rate, but mainly moved higher due to strong Chinese data.
USD/ZAR dropped sharply amid reports that the South African Finance Minister will not be charged.
Commodities
Gold – remains trading around the 1276 level at the moment as it is waiting for some new impulses, either by the FED or some other events.
Oil – dropped sharply as the market doesn’t expect any meaningful measures from the major oil producing countries. As such we dropped to the lowest level in a month with the nearest support around the 45.80 level. When we look at the previous time we reached the resistance around the 51.70 level, we also saw a sharp drop straight thereafter until the support around the 45.80 level. OPEC said it did draft and approved a document outlying its long term strategy, but the market is unconvinced, especially since OPEC apparently produced more in October than it did on September.