Market News

The Aussie and Kiwi initially shot higher on China’s strong trade data, but soon gave up most of their session gains when traders took a closer look at imports.

China’s yuan firmed against the U.S. dollar on Friday, on course for its fifth straight winning week, buoyed by rising corporate dollar sales and sustained strength in the country’s exports.

Oil prices eased on Friday after hitting their highest levels since December, 2014 the previous day. Despite the dip, analysts said market fundamentals going into 2018 were strong due to ongoing OPEC production cuts.

China’s exports and imports growth slowed in December after unexpectedly surging in the previous month, adding to signs of ebbing economic growth.

Euro strength was still the name of the game for the first few hours of the New York session before profit-taking led to dips. The spotlight then turned to the dollar when PPI figures fell short of estimates and spurred weaker CPI expectations.

Despite recent NAFTA rumors and rhetoric shaking up the Loonie, I’m still bullish on the Loonie over the rest of the majors. Is this textbook bearish setup on USD/CAD worth checking out?

The United States must be taken seriously when it says it might walk away from NAFTA, Canada’s foreign minister said on Thursday, a day after government sources said Ottawa was increasingly convinced U.S. President Donald Trump would pull the plug.

U.S. producer prices fell for the first time in nearly 1-1/2 years in December amid declining costs for services, which could temper expectations that inflation will accelerate in 2018.

Gold prices were near their highest in four months on Thursday as a dip in global stocks and recent gains in commodity prices encouraged investors to hold bullion as insurance against a stock market correction and rising inflation.

EUR was a net loser for most of the session but quickly began to dominate when the minutes of the ECB’s latest huddle were released. EUR wasn’t the only beneficiary of the ECB minutes, though, since CHF also got a lift.

South Korea’s government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil.

The U.S. will be releasing its CPI and retail sales reports this Friday. And if you’re planning to trade these top-tier reports and you need a quick recap, as well as a detailed preview, then today’s edition of my Event Preview is just for you! 

Australia’s retail sales report boosted the Aussie across the board, while yen crosses and dollar pairs recover on a bit of profit-taking from yesterday’s moves.

Oil prices held near three-year highs on Thursday, supported by a surprise drop in U.S. production and lower crude inventories.

The Bank of Japan maintained the amount of its bond purchases on Thursday, helping to soothe a market rattled earlier this week by a cut in its buying of longer-dated debt.

Well, that was fun while it lasted! U.S. equities took a break from their rallies on China’s hints about trimming its Treasury holdings and NAFTA came back in the picture.

The U.S. dollar fell to a more than six-week low against the Japanese yen and weakened against a basket of major currencies on Wednesday after a report that China was ready to slow or halt its U.S. Treasury purchases.

The Canadian dollar weakened to its lowest this year against the greenback on Wednesday as worries about the outlook for NAFTA tempered bets that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates next week.

Chinese officials reviewing the country’s vast foreign exchange holdings have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds amid a less attractive market for them and rising U.S.-China trade tensions, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Major government bond yields hit multi-month highs on Wednesday, extending earlier gains on a report that Chinese officials have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. government bonds.