Market News

Earlier today, the Swiss National Bank maintained its benchmark interest rates at the current low (-0.75%).

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the official cash rate (OCR) to 2.5 per cent and hinted that the cost of borrowing could fall even further.

The Euro took a breather from its latest string of falls during Wednesday’s trading and edged toward the recently struck 1-month peak.

The U.S. dollar rose sharply against the Canadian loonie Tuesday hitting 1.3600 and establishing a new 11-year high.

The ongoing fall in oil prices as well as the stock market decline in emerging markets helped to extend the losing streak for commodity-linked currencies.

Myanmar (formerly Burma), is the latest country to open its own stock exchange. The new exchange will be launched on Wednesday and is a further step in the pariah state’s recovery.

OPEC continues to pump near record oil causing prices to remain near 7-year lows in early Asian trading on Tuesday, and worsening a glut that has already seen hundreds of thousands of excess barrels produced on a daily basis.

The New Zealand Dollar, known familiarly as the Kiwi, fell 1% in today’s trading session as investors wait to learn of the central bank’s decision on additional easing.

Asian share markets were mixed on Monday as caution grew ahead of Chinese data, although sentiment for a Fed interest rate hike continued to be strong.

This will probably be a quieter and less dramatic week ahead, but there are still some significant events scheduled that may have a big impact upon financial markets. Get the economic and political calendar for the popular currencies for the week of December 7, 2015 here.

Asian equities dropped to three-week lows Friday, following a global sell-off as comments from the Fed and the European Central Bank (ECB) had investors still worrying about a Fed rate increase.

This month’s announcement of the monthly U.S. Non-Farm Employment Payrolls change came in almost exactly in line with the market’s expectations, with 211,000 new jobs announced compared to the expected number of 200,000.

President Mario Draghi’s decision to bring the ECB’s deposit rate to a record low of minus 0.3 percent sent the euro higher Thursday.

The Bank of Canada left its key overnight lending rate at 0.50 per cent on Wednesday, stating that the domestic economy has been expanding as expected despite low oil prices and other pressures.

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference is well into the middle of its first week of meetings in Le Bourget, a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris.