Forex Fundamental Analysis

Last week was a mixed affair for the world’s major markets as they digested a US interest hike, a lack-lustre monetary easing from the Bank of Japan and as the price of crude oil continued to fall.

The Spanish people are going to the polls today in a milestone election that will see more than two parties compete for power for the first time in thirty years.

Last month, the people of Argentina ended 12 years of socialist rule with the election of Mauricio Macri, a former mayor of Buenos Aires, as the nation’s president. The incoming president has vowed to make a break with the past adopting a more business-friendly approach, resolve problems with foreign creditors stemming from the nation’s insolvency in 2002, end corruption (well, it is the season of goodwill…) and shift the nation’s foreign policy away from Venezuela and Iran and towards better links with the US and western nations.

Finally, the US Federal Reserve has judged that economic conditions are right to move interest rates away from the historic low value that they have been held at since December 2008.

Providing “end users” with what central banks think is likely to be happening with the economy and marcoeconomic policy is known as “Forward Guidance”.

If you find yourself in Asia looking for business opportunities, stay away from China.

The European Union has long been a political whipping boy in the UK, and, in fairness, in all of the EU’s member states to a greater or lesser extent

Last week saw all of the major stock markets lose ground as the price of crude oil continued to fall.

2015 is drawing to a close and financial investors are trying to understand past global dynamics in order to move forward into 2016.

King Henry II was widely blamed for the death of his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, who was murdered by some knights keen to curry the king’s favour. A similar, though less violent, thought may have been passing through the mind of South African president, Jacob Zuma, when he fired his finance minister recently.

Looks like the bitcoin is making headlines again. The crypto-currency zoomed up Wednesday to its highest levels since early November but the reasons for the zip up remain as mysterious as the currency itself.

At the heart of the concept of the European Union (and its predecessor the European Economic Community) is the idea that citizens of the union should have the right to live and work in any member state.

Initial readings of Japan’s Q3 growth suggested that the world’s third largest economy had contracted by an annualised rate of 0.8%.

It seems increasingly likely that the Federal Reserve will finally increase interest rates when it meets later this month, ending a near-zero rate policy that has been in force since December 2008.

Last week saw an Atlantic divide with European markets (and Japan) falling whilst the major American stock markets managed small gains. Get the Forex week in review fundamental analysis for December 7, 2105 here.