Forex: Trading on the Forex market was relatively calm, with only the GBP/USD experiencing a more serious chart movement, as it fell by 124 pips to close at 1.6018 on Friday. On Wednesday, the European Central Bank left its interest rate unchanged at 0.5% in a decision that widely expected by market makers.
However, the euro rose against the dollar, boosted by Mario Draghi’s traditional follow-up press conference. The EUR/USD closed at 1.3552 on Friday, or 31 pips higher than the previous week. Another major currency pair, AUD/USD, reported an increase by 119 pips.
Indices
Last week’s headliner was the US partial shutdown as the White House and Congress failed to reach an agreement on the country’s budget, and federal government agencies closed for the first time in 17 years. A last-minute deal was missed as the House of Representatives insisted on postponing President Obama’s health bill for one year, while the Senate firmly refused such an action. Political passions had a negative effect on the most popular US index, the Dow, causing it to decline by 1.18% and close at 15,072 points on Friday. The S&P500 gained 0.7% to 1,690.50, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 0.9% to end the period at 3,807.75.
In Europe, all eyes were set on Italy, where a highly-anticipated confidence vote faced for Enrico Letta’s government took place on Wednesday. In a little-expected turn of events, Silvio Berlusconi changed his original decision to withdraw support for Prime Minister Letta, and, pressured by his own party, backed the current government. Ultimately, the Senate gave its support to Letta with 235 voting in favour to 70 against and 14 abstentions. The news was welcomed by investors and Italy’s S&P/MIB rose 3.60% for the week, reaching 18,304 points.
Commodities
On the commodities market, Brent crude oil futures for November delivery (COIL1113) rose by 46 cents per barrel and closed Friday’s session at $109.19. Gold reported a decline by 0.6% on Friday alone, falling for a fourth session. The overall weekly drop of gold was 2.2%, while depreciation since the start of 2013 reached 22%. Silver, on the other hand, lost about 3 cents and ended the period at $21.75 per troy ounce with a weekly decline by 0.4%.
What to expect this week?
This week one of the biggest attention-drawers will be the Fed’s meeting minutes, due for release on Wednesday, after several turbulent weeks on the US political and economic scene. Wednesday will also see the UK’s Industrial and Manufacturing Productions (YoY and MoM) as well as the ECB’s monthly report on the prevailing economic conditions. Other events include the US Consumer Credit Change for August and the UK’s Housing Price Balance for September, both set for publishing today. Tuesday’s highlights will be the National Australia Bank ‘s survey on Business Confidence, Germany’ s Trade Balance for August, as well as the US Trade Balance, also for August, and the Bank of Japan’s Monetary Policy minutes. Thursday’ big entries will be Australia’s Employment data, the Bank of England Interest Rate decision and Asset Purchase facility, BoJ Governor Kuroda’s speech, and ECB President Mario Draghi’s speech. Friday will close the week with Germany’s Consumer Prices (YoY and MoM) and lots of economic data from the US – some of it delayed due to the shutdown – reports on the country’s Non-farm payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Retail Sales and Business Inventories.
Outside the economic calendar, the US earnings season for Q3 is “knocking on the door”, set to unfold in the next few weeks. About 21 companies from the S&P500, including Oracle (ORCL), FedEx (FDX), and Nike (NKE), have already published their financial statements. However, it is still too early to draw conclusions about the financial performance and trends in this earnings season. Among the corporations set to publish their reports this week are J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) и Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC).
Source: dfmarkets.co.uk
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