Market News

The dollar edged slightly lower during Thursday’s Asian session, falling 0.1 percent against the yen to 104.41, after Wednesday posted another down day for U.S. stock markets.

The Pound Sterling recovered against the US Dollar earlier today as investors’ expectations of a Bank of England rate cut fade.

Disappointing earnings on Wall Street yesterday brought the major stock markets broadly lower, with U.S. stocks ending between 0.3 and 0.5 percent lower on Tuesday.

The US Dollar remains near recent multi-month highs on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve Bank will, indeed, increase interest rates in December.

The Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, caused a minor market stir yesterday when his remarks at a testimony before the Canadian House of Common’s Standing Committee were misinterpreted, at least per the Bank.

The Pound Sterling edged higher against the US Dollar as risk sentiment improved across the globe, however analysts point out that any gains are likely limited as investors consider the likely impact of the Brexit.

There will be a significantly lighter news schedule this week compared to last week, with no real input due from any major central banks. Get the weekly economic calendar for the week of October 24, 2016 here.

In Asian trade, the US Dollar remained broadly higher and is poised to record another gain for the week.

As markets anxiously await the decision from the European Union regarding its Quantitative Easing program, the common currency came under heavy pressure and was trading close to a 3-month trough versus the US dollar.

The Mexican peso, the unofficial measure of U.S. election outcome expectations, has continued strengthening in the wake of Wednesday night’s U.S. presidential debate.

The Pound Sterling saw its strongest single day’s gains within the last quarter after it was made clear that the UK Parliament would be required to ratify the deal to withdraw Britain from the European Union.

China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, grew 6.7 percent in the third quarter of 2016, meeting expectations and remaining unchanged from the previous period, the Chinese government confirmed on Wednesday.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics reported earlier that inflation in the UK was at its highest level since November of 2016, rising to 1.0% in September from August’s 0.6% against expectations of a rise to 0.9%.

Asian stocks were slightly higher on Tuesday, despite concerns about weak data from China, as the MSCI index gained 0.5 percent, the Hang Seng index looked towards modest gains and the Australia benchmark index was up 0.4 percent in early trade.

While markets are preparing themselves for Mario Draghi’s speech later today, in the interim they’re digesting the latest news from Eurostat which showed September CPI figures meeting analysts’ expectations.