The Pound was in for another day of declines, with the only exceptions being against the Kiwi and the Aussie.
Commodities began the new week with modest value changes, but no unanimity in terms of the direction of development. Natural gas remained the only major dissenter of the day, being that it surged by 3% after crashing by more than 5% on Friday of the previous week. Precious metals hovered in red amid estimates the US Dollar will continue to
Concerns over global demand and rising US Dollar were negatively reflected in the pricing of commodity-linked currencies on Tuesday. EUR/AUD and EUR/NZD were the largest nominal gainers as they both added around 0.6%.
The US Dollar appreciated against most major peers on Friday and over the weekend, with exception against the Aussie and the Yen.
The Sterling sustained losses against most major peers on Friday and over the weekend, with exception versus the Euro, against which it added 0.14%.
Except for natural gas, commodity trading was broadly silent on Friday as no sharp changes were posted by any of the components. Oil prices traded moderately upwards, with Brent and Crude adding 1.1% and 0.4%, correspondingly. Many economists see this rebound as a temporary event, while many downside factors remain in place and will continue to weigh on oil prices
The Euro was trading down across the board on Friday, with losses ranging from 0.15% against the British Pound, up to 1.44% versus the Australian Dollar. The South Pacific currency has fully recovered on a weekly basis as risk-off sentiment faded and confidence returned to the commodity currency.
The Greenback experienced a rather sharp sell-off on Thursday, weakening against most major currencies.
The Pound declined against most major peers on Thursday, due to disappointing Retail Sales figures.
Precious metals rallied in the past 24 hours after a long losing streak that reduced prices to this year's lows. Gold recovered by more than one full percentage point, while silver gained 0.6% yesterday. Such movements are explained by expectations that the Federal Reserve is planning to raise interest rates gradually in the medium term, while December rate hike by
Even though the Fed has literally confirmed that interest rates are likely to start rising next month, the pace of policy normalization will be slow and gradual. These projections pushed the US Dollar, which seems to have already priced in the rate hike, down by 0.7% against the Euro.
The US Dollar experienced mixed performance on Wednesday, due to a bad reading of the US Housing Starts, but the majority of FOMC members voting for a rate hike in December.
The British currency remained strong for an extra day, as it advanced against most major peers.
American Dollar weakened across the board on Wednesday, despite quite hawkish minutes of the FOMC committees' meeting. Members noticed that conditions are likely to be met, in order to begin the process of monetary policy normalisation at their next meeting in the middle of December.
The Euro skyrocketed the most versus the Swiss Franc on Wednesday, even though this currency pair usually is barely turbulent. EUR/CHF surged by 0.7% on the back of very disappointing ZEW economic conditions' survey for Switzerland. This indicator dropped down to zero in October from 18.3 points a month before. It proclaims that institutional investors and analysts are now neither
Due to a bad reading of the Industrial Production, the US Dollar failed to advance against the Aussie, the Loonie and the Sterling.
The British currency appreciated against most major peers on Tuesday, as the inflation data fell in line with expectations.
Some of the commodities continued to trade in red on Tuesday, while others resumed the downward tendency after a temporary bullish development in the beginning of this week. Precious metals including silver and gold were down by 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively.
Risk-averse sentiment and expectations over more ECB stimulus in December are pushing odds against the common European currency. Yesterday it slid against all but one G8 currency, by adding 0.08% only against the Swiss Franc. Japanese Yen and US Dollar, two classical safe-haven currencies, are building ground as they advanced by 0.2% and 0.4% versus the Euro, respectively.
The American Dollar outperformed most major peers on Monday, with the smallest gain registered against its Canadian counterpart (0.06%).
The Sterling remained strong against most major peers on Monday, with exception versus the Loonie and the US Dollar.
Contrary to Friday, commodities traded predominantly in green or posted a very negligible decline in the beginning of the new working week. Crude oil won the prize of being the best performer of Monday session as it surged by 2.5% to trade at $40.73, even though daily lows were surpassing an important psychological mark of $40 per barrel
The Euro continued to slump against G8 currencies on Monday, the first trading day of this week. Paris terrorist attacks made the Euro area's medium term economic outlook even more uncertain, which led to market sell-off of the single currency yesterday.
The Greenback experienced mixed performance on Friday and over the weekend, with gains outweighing the losses.