Market News

Oil prices rose slightly during Wednesday’s Asian session following a four percent decline overnight on fears that today’s OPEC meeting in Vienna may not yield actionable steps to cut oil production.

Pound Sterling Edged higher versus the US Dollar as FX traders await new cues as to Britain’s departure from the EU.

Rumors that tomorrow’s OPEC meeting will fail to instigate production cuts sent oil prices broadly lower on Tuesday.

The Pound Sterling was mixed in European trading, holding its own versus the US Dollar but sliding versus the Euro as the markets’ focus turns to Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank.

The dollar plummeted more than 1.6 percent against the yen on Monday, retreating from the eight-month high set on Friday as traders showed concerns about this week’s OPEC meeting.

There will be a significantly heavier news schedule this week compared to last week, with major central bank input due only from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, but there will also be many items of key U.S. economic data including key Non-Farm Payrolls numbers.

Minutes released yesterday from the Federal Reserve meeting on November 1-2, 2016 signaled that an interest rate hike is highly likely before the end of the year.

The US Dollar steadily marched toward a 13½ year peak ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday as investors anticipate that a Donald Trump-led administration will result in renewed growth and higher interest rates.

President-elect Donald Trump’s talk of trade tariffs has decreased positive sentiment for emerging markets, and the continually-rising U.S. bond yields have pulled money out of Asia, leading traders to question exactly how Trump’s proposed policies will impact on economies outside of the United States.

Pound Sterling takes a breather after earlier rally which brought the GBP/USD close to the earlier struck 1-week peak.

Solid performance in the U.S. stock market on Monday and overnight helped push Asian stocks to one-week highs on Tuesday.

The Euro edged higher and moved away from the recently struck 11-month trough versus the US Dollar as political uncertainty within the Eurozone seems to be evaporating slightly; that has provided some support to the common currency.

The dollar held tightly to its 13 ½ year highs during Monday’s Asian session as investors held their beliefs that Trump would make good on his expansionary fiscal policies which will bring about interest rate hike to help stem inflation.

There will be a lighter news schedule this week compared to last week. Get the economic calendar for the week of November 21, 2016 here.

The US Dollar continued to move broadly and decidedly higher against its major peers, which helped to push Japan’s Nikkei index to a fresh 10-month peak.