Corn was the best performer among all major commodities this Thursday amid speculations over weather conditions in South America, which influence the eventual crop of this commodity. Oil prices were undecided yesterday, being that Crude added 0.3% and Brent slipped by 0.5%. Overall, trading volumes and volatility stayed weak, following uplifted turbulence after publication of US oil stockpiles a day
The Euro eroded Wednesday losses in the past 24 hours, meaning gains were registered versus all major currencies. The Australian Dollar dipped by more than one percentage point versus the 19-nation currency, while being heavily influenced by US GDP numbers and subsequently rising US Dollar.
Except oil, other commodities were mainly trending downwards on Wednesday. The yellow metal was down by almost one full percentage point, even despite initial gains for this commodity. While silver preserved an increase of 0.4%, the rally was hammered by more hawkish than expected stance from the Federal Reserve yesterday. Now a December rate increase is back on the table,
The Federal Reserve pivots towards a rate hike in December. After a two-day meeting the FOMC committee decided to hold the target range for the Federal Funds rate unchanged at 0-0.25%. At the same time, policymakers have dropped a sentence from the statement, which underlined negative impact of global economic events on the US economy. This state of affairs raised
The US Dollar managed to appreciate against most major peers on a hawkish FOMC statement.
The Pound posted gains against most of its major peers, with exception against the US and Canadian Dollars.
Although yesterday's event did not warrant an increase in demand for the US Dollar, the Greenback was the second most bullish currency after the Yen.
The Pound continues to balance between the gains and losses versus its major counterparts, even though the fundamentals were not at all favourable yesterday for the UK currency.
Investors estimate another surge in US oil stockpiles for the week ended October 23. This projection was pushing oil prices lower yesterday when they declined by more than 1.5%. Corn prices fell by 1.2% and helped the benchmark S&P GSCI Index to register an almost one percentage point slump during the observed trading session.
Oil prices pushed the commodity-linked currencies substantially to the downside on Tuesday. EUR/CAD and EUR/AUD were up by 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. The Kiwi took a softer hit in its price against the Euro as EUR/NZD rose by only 0.3% yesterday
The Greenback was among the main losers on Monday because of the disappointing news on the real estate market. The largest drop was recorded against the New Zealand Dollar that appreciated 0.48% relative to its US counterpart, followed by a 0.45% decline in AUD/USD.
The Sterling held relatively well yesterday, considering the bearish fundamentals. The currency outperformed (CHF, USD, CAD) and underperformed (EUR, AUD, NZD) the same number of currencies, while staying unchanged with respect to the Japanese Yen (-0.05%).
Only two major commodities hovered in the green zone on Monday, with corn and silver rallying by 1.25% and 0.2%, correspondingly. At the same time, the traditionally most volatile commodity, natural gas, crashed by 9.8% yesterday, but it failed to drive the benchmark S&P GSCI Index significantly to the downside. A decrease of 0.7% was prompted by oil prices as
Monday trading was traditionally spent in a calm manner, but one currency pair of the Euro still performed stronger than others. EUR/CHF surged by 0.86%, reflecting monetary policy fears of the Swiss National Bank. The SNB can be forced to soften the stance further or protect the Franc from rising, in case the European Central Bank decides to expand the
The US Dollar retained its strong bullish momentum that we saw on Thursday and closed Friday mostly in green.
Performance of the British Pound on Friday was mixed. The currency managed to gain against the Euro (+0.30%), but at the same time the Sterling gave up 0.65 and 0.52% of its value in terms of the Australian and US dollars respectively.
Among the most traded commodities, only corn became more expensive on Friday by gaining 0.4%. Precious metals and Brent oil traded marginally on the red side as their losses did not exceed two tenths of one per cent. On the other hand, a huge 4.2% slump for natural gas and a 1.7% drop for Crude oil provided the pan-market S&P
The Euro continued to underperform major currencies around the world, especially the US and Australian dollars. A decline against them reached 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively. Negative changes versus other currencies used to be weaker in the range of 0.2-0.3%. Markets continued to price in decisions of the European Central Bank to announce a high probability of additional stimulus measures to
The US Dollar appreciated against most major peers on Thursday, with exception against the Kiwi and the Loonie.
The Sterling rallied against some major peers on Thursday, but declined against the others.
Gold traded water and was down by just 0.1% on Thursday, even despite a sharp strengthening of the American Dollar after ultra-dovish announcements by the ECB President Mario Draghi. Prospects of more ECB stimulus bolstered the case of purchasing gold, but also added to struggles for direction due to appreciating US currency.
The Euro tumbled versus any single major currency on the foreign exchange on Thursday, with losses ranging from 0.65% against the Swiss Franc to 3.3% for the New Zealand Dollar.
The US Dollar kept appreciating against most major peers, due to rumours about the Fed raising interest rates in December.
The British currency advanced against most major peers on Wednesday, amid the narrowing between the spending and income in the public sector.