The reporting period was ahead of Fed's announcement of QE infinity. During the week, US dollar rallied against major currencies. Although the Fed announced to resumed QE, the purchase of US$700B of assets was small as a percentage of...
Bets on higher gold price increased as worsening coronavirus pandemic intensified concerns over global recession. On the other hand, traders increased bets on both higher and lower crude oil prices, but the latter prevailed. The front-month WTI crude contract...
While the coronavirus pandemic continued to worsen globally, investor sentiment somewhat stabilized after governments and central banks rushed to push out tighter lockdown measures, fiscal stimulus and monetary easing. Dollar suffered massive selling on easing risk aversion, improving funding...
Canadian dollar traded below 70 cents this week, but don't dust off “Northern Peso" references
2019 was an unusually quiet and stable year for the Canadian dollar. 2020 has been anything but. Canada’s currency was worth 77 US cents at...
U.S. Review
Virus Shutdowns Begin to Show Up in the Data
The U.S. surpassed Italy and China with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19. Europe is still the center of the storm, with the total cases in Europe's five largest...
U.S. Highlights
Another eventful week for financial markets as they digested the news that Congress had agreed to a giant $2 trillion relief bill.
Stimulus is sorely needed, with more than three million Americans filing for unemployment insurance benefits...
The week past has seen eye-popping layoff numbers in both Canada and the US with reports that almost a million jobless claims were filed last week alone in Canada, and 3.3 million in the US. These were unprecedented increases,...
We have been seeing moves of 2%, 5% and even 10% in trading products across the board as volatility picks up amid the spread of the coronavirus. The Fed went “All In” early in the week to continue to...
Yet another Central Bank holds an emergency meeting and cuts interest rates. It seems like it was only a matter of time before the Bank of Canada (BoC) made another inter-meeting move and cut rates by 50bps from 0.75%...
The global crisis from the coronavirus pandemic has produced much turmoil in financial markets even though economic data on the impact has so far been scarce. That is about to change as March figures start rolling in. Given the...
Key insights from the week that was.
This week, historic negative economic outcomes were seen in both Europe and the US. Financial markets instead focused on the wave of stimulus announced, particularly in the US.
Of the data released, the first...
The Bank of Canada cut its policy interest rate a further 50 basis points, to 0.25% (from 0.75%), in another inter-meeting cut. The level of the policy interest rate is now back to the lows reached in the...
AUDJPY fell aggressively in recent weeks to touch an 11-year low of 59.85, where the pair found fresh buy orders and subsequently rebounded. That said, the price structure on the daily chart still points to a broader downtrend, something...
Sterling slid on Friday after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for coronavirus, although Number 10 was keen to stress that he’s only experiencing mild symptoms.
I’m not quite sure why the positive test result warranted such a move...
Personal income advanced by 0.6% month-on-month in February, above market expectations (+0.4%). Subtracting inflation and taxes, real disposable income growth was also strong, rising by 0.4% in the month. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the rise...
European stocks and US futures turn softer today, apparently on pre-weekend profit taking again. FTSE is additionally pressured, possibly as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was tested positive for coronavirus. In the currency markets, Yen regains some ground together with...
EURCAD is currently trading between the 50-period simple moving average (SMA) and the lower Bollinger band under conditions of evaporated directional momentum. The consolidation of the price comes after a drop from the 2-year high of 1.5991. Backing this...
Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said his forecast is for the US economy to have substantial contraction in Q2, in the 20% range on an annualized basis. Unemployment rate could rise to mid teens before falling back to 7-8%...
Italy's chief of the Superior Health Institute Silvio Brusaferro warned that "we haven't reached the peak and we haven't passed" the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, there were signs of slow down in new infections, and the peak may not be...
US Personal income rose 0.6% in February, well above expectation of 0.3%. The increase in personal income primarily reflected increases in compensation of employees and farm proprietors' income. Farm proprietors' income increased USD 34.1B, which included an increase in...