Janet Yellen’s speech on Wednesday about rising interest rates caused U.S. equities to fall at first, however markets rebounded in the next trading session on the back of positive data. Yellen hinted that interest rates might increase by the middle of next year and borrowing costs could alter as soon as Q3.
Post factory data coming out of the US saw major stock indices strengthen against G7 currency pairs and pushed them sharply down. The EURUSD lowered down below 1.3800 at 1.3750.
Pressing down on the brakes – the technical outlook
The five week rally has probably finished and we have a few bearish weeks ahead. From a technical view, this downfall has been part of the rally correction, and it was just a matter of time when it will push down to the support level.
The GBPUSD rate has lowered below the eight month support and broke the level on the daily chart. The Sterling was affected by Wednesday’s Annual Budget release and bearish sentiment on the unsure positive outlook. It would not be a surprise if it will move further down to the 1.6425 rate, followed by the rate of 1.6300.
Even Mr Osborne showed that the UK is recovering and employment achieved a record high; there were some non-believers, which caused the pair to drop by over 150 points by Thursdaynight.
The tension between Ukraine and Russia and on-going concerns about slow ‘Growth rate in China’ has directed a spree of investors to the safe haven precious metals market. Gold traded at a high of $1389.6 per troy ounce on Monday.
Not long after, bears pulled the yellow metal which dropped to a support at $1323, consequently this brought full attention and money inflows into safe low risk instruments such as the US dollar, yellow metal.
The precious metal is currently trading still above support and seems to be heading up for gains again.
The Brent Oil contract has lost value and dipped down to 105.40, a figure last seen on the 3rdFebruary. Brent gained slightly after President Barack Obamas announced a possible wave of sanctions against Russia, thus putting pressure on global energy supplies, will the Russian sanctions be repeat of Iran?.
Across the Atlantic, European Union leaders have decided to follow the U.S. in escalating the matter of sanctions against one of their ‘dear’ trading partners. At the moment, oil is trading at the one month resistance, at a price of 106.91 per barrel; the energy contract could see sharp upside as the strength of Obama’s punishment unfolds.
Asian Currencies dropped during the week, as the Federal Reserve reported interest rates hike, up to 1%, by the end of 2015. The Fed has trimmed its bond-buying program, which was a catalyst for investor inflows into riskier asset classes, namely emerging markets. The Yuan continued to slide as China’s Central Bank cut the daily reference rate by 0.21%.
In other news, the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, made his mark by lifting the levy on betting duty, which caused the major UK bookmakers stocks to fall thus affecting FTSE sinceWednesday. Positive US data caused the European Stocks and FTSE to fall even more. On Thursday the FTSE closed down at 6542.44 and DAX has touched the low at 9156.63. Today it seems that European and UK stocks start to recover and are heading up for gains while the US index is trading in the red.
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