Entering into US session, Sterling is trading as the strongest one for today, reversing much last last week’s losses. It’s followed by Euro and then Dollar. On the other hand, commodity currencies are generally lower, as led by Australian Dollar. There were a lot of comments on Brexit from UK and EU, but there were just nothing more than words. UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet will meet on Brexit today and the result out the there would be watched.
Meanwhile, new round of US-China tariffs are set to kick in today. Ahead of that, China’s State Council released a 36k white paper on its position, criticizing US “bullying” and pledged to defend it’s own interests. It doesn’t matter much on how much truth the white paper tells, as what China says is always doubtful. Most important thing is that China is not going to back down from trade war. That’s a factor weighing down Aussie and Kiwi.
In other markets, European stocks are generally lower today. FTSE is down -0.24% at the time of writing, DAX down -0.38%, CAC down -0.21%. China and Japan are on holiday. Hong Kong HSI closed down -1.62%, Singapore Strait Times closed up 0.05%. WTI crude oil was lifted by OPEC decision to stick with its production plan and is up 1.65% at 71.95. Gold is hovering around 1200.
