- Major stock benchmarks in Europe were on the upswing today, with the DAX, FTSE and CAC40 gaining close to 1.5%, while Hugo Boss' results supported sentiment around luxury companies, which saw a sizable rebound today
- The gains in the financial markets continue after investors assessed yesterday's Powell conference as likely a signal that interest rates in the U.S. economy will not rise again from their current levels of 5.5%
- The U.S. dollar is trading lower today, with USDIDX contracts losing 0.5% and yields continuing their decline. EURUSD approached 1.063 and continues its near 0.5% rally
- Weaker ISM readings and higher jobless claims, which indicated 217,000 versus 210,000 forecast and 210,000 previously, legitimized the scenario of the end of the Fed's tightening cycle
- One of the highlights of today's macro calendar was the BoE's decision on interest rates. The council decided to keep the level unchanged at 5.25%.
- The rate level was also kept unchanged today by Norges Bank.
- The attention of the markets is now focused on Apple's report, where the market expects a slowdown in revenue and will pay attention to the profits brought to the company by the launch of the iPhone 15 and forecasts for the Christmas fiscal Q1 2024 quarter
- Today's session also brings a number of interesting headlines regarding the situation in the Middle East. As reported by the New York Times and later by Secretary Blinken himself, the United States is pushing Israel to agree to a ceasefire (pause) in Gaza in order to free the hostages held in Gaza and limit the massive civilian casualties. Moreover, a little later, the CNN news agency, quoting U.S. intelligence sources, reported that Iran has no intention of bringing Israel and its allies into open conflict.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen conveyed that separating the U.S. economy from China would have dire consequences for the global economy and seems uneconomical for either side. She also expressed concern about Russia's failure to ratify the nuclear deal
- However, crude oil is gaining more than 2% today on both Brent and WTI, potentially indicating that markets do not expect Israel to meet US expectations and the political leadership centered around Netanyahu may continue to conduct a military operation in Gaza risking the spread of the conflict.
- U.S. natural gas inventory data came in close to expected values. NATGAS is currently losing more than 0.4%.
- Mixed sentiment prevails in the cryptocurrency market, where Bitcoin is struggling to stay above the psychologically significant $35,000 level
From the technical point of view, situation on EURUSD is still unclear and major global f/x pair may still decline if bearish flag formation will be confirmed. On the other hand surging above 38,2 Fibo retracement may lead to EURUSD retest of 1,08 zone after escaping from bearish pattern. Source: xStation5
