Market News & Analysis

Because of the US dollar’s ongoing strength, the GBP/USD’s initial gains post UK’s jobs data evaporated fairly quickly. However, against today’s weaker currencies like the Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar and Swiss franc, sterling was still higher at the time of this writing.

The USD/CHF remains fundamentally supported with the US Federal Reserve being the most hawkish central bank out there, while the Swiss National Bank being among the most dovish.

Gold’s rally from last week has come to an abrupt halt at the start of this week’s trading. After falling back below $1300 per troy ounce, the precious metal has extended its decline today, tracking the EUR/USD exchange rate lower as investors weigh ongoing hawkish rhetoric from the Federal Reserve against an improving Eurozone economy.

If you are searching for market direction today then US banks could be the place to look. Morgan Stanley delivered better results than expected, with profit 11 cents higher per share than was expected, Goldman Sachs also smashed expectations, showing that they have turned things around after a dismal Q2.

The price of the precious metal palladium has more than doubled in the last 2.5 years, and it briefly touched $1000 per ounce on Monday, the highest level since 2001. Although it couldn’t sustain life above this level, the palladium story looks supportive for further price gains and palladium is the best performing precious metal so far this year.

A takeover offer for a small UK bank could fire the starting gun on a spate of offers for 'challengers'

A busy week for economic data will start tonight when Statistics New Zealand releases the nation’s third quarter inflation figures. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to have risen by 0.4% quarter-over-quarter.

The euro has started the new week on the back foot, while Spain’s Ibex index bucked the trend of an otherwise slightly positive day in the stock markets in Europe. Political uncertainty continues to dominate the headlines in Spain.

The last trading day of the week is drawing to a close and after huffing and puffing all week the dollar fell further in response to the latest US economic data.

Wells Fargo saw a much older conduct issue come back to bite leaving it with the most disappointing Q3 results among rivals so far.

The euro has eased off across the board on a Bloomberg report that the European Central Bank may reduce its bond purchases to €30 billion per month from January and simultaneously extend the duration of the QE programme by another nine months to at least September 2018.

Mediocre JPMorgan and Citigroup earnings once again lay bare how dependent big U.S. bank shares are on tax cut hype