Currencies
EUR/USD – was unable to hold onto its gains from the morning and moved down and is continuing moving down this morning as well. The nearest support can be found around the 1.1116 level and the data today (GDP data out of the Eurozone and later on US data), could determine if that will be reached or not.
USD/JPY – was able to correct some of its downwards move, although we can see that it was able to find support on the upwards trend line on the 4 hour chart.
GBP/USD – had another strong day and moved considerably higher after the PMI data showed robust growth to reach the highest level in nearly 2 month, but was unable to maintain these high levels for now and moved back to close only 16 pips higher.
AUD/USD – held on to its gains as the RBA did not change the interest rate as was expected. Australia is still having low growth and inflation so it could lower the interest rate later this year, which is expected, but it will also wait to see what the FED will do. This was the last time RBA Governor Stevens was at the head of the RBA, and he will be replaced by his deputy Philip Lowe on the 18th.
USD/CAD – moved sharply down again, as oil prices moved up considerably and also the USD kept on weakening. We are nearing the support around the 1.29 level, so we will have to wait to see if we are able to close below this level.
Indices
DAX 30 – the downwards trend line remains intact although we can expect that we will see another test of this level as the DAX is posed to open higher.
Commodities
Gold – moved up a bit, as the USD kept on weakening, although we are getting closer to the resistance around the 1332 level. We will get some US data today again, after a day with no US data due to Labor Day. As always the data could be the driving force, as the FED has said numerous times that it is data dependent, and with the NFP out of the way, there is no single data set that they will be looking at, but more likely they will look at the overall trend of the data.
Oil – had a very interesting day, and shot up over $2 in just over 2 hours as it was reported that an agreement was reached between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The expectation was that this had to do with a production freeze. However, when the details emerged during a press conference, it became clear that it was an agreement on general cooperation to stabilize the oil market, and that there was no agreement at this point to freeze production. This led to a disappointment, and we saw oil give up a good part of its gains, although it still closed firmly higher.
Stocks
Bayer (DE:BAYGN) – remains committed to take over Monsanto (NYSE:MON), and has raised its offer once more, this time to $127.50 a share.