Market News

Hurricane Nate slammed the Mississippi Coast on Sunday with destructive winds and torrential rains that flooded streets and highways throughout the region as the fast moving Category 1 storm made landfall.

New Zealand’s small nationalist party which holds the balance of power after an inconclusive election held talks on Sunday with Prime Minister Bill English and separately with the opposition Labour leader as both try to form a coalition government.

GBP took hits and was the worst-performing currency of them all. But what caused GBP to tank? And if GBP was the weakest, then which currency was the strongest? Time to find out!

Hurricane Nate may strengthen on Saturday, threatening to hit the U.S. central Gulf Coast with strong winds and storm surges after it killed at least 25 people in Central America.

A possible Labour-Green coalition narrowed the gap with the ruling National Party in New Zealand’s final election tally, strengthening their position ahead of talks on Sunday.

U.S. employment fell in September for the first time in seven years as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma left displaced workers temporarily unemployed and delayed hiring.

The dollar rose to its strongest in 10 weeks on Friday and short-dated U.S. Treasury yields climbed to a nine-year high, after data showing the largest gain in U.S. wages since December 2016 bolstered bets on an interest rate hike by year-end.

The Canadian economy added fewer jobs than expected last month, with all the gains coming from the public sector, though the pace of wage growth was the fastest in more than a year, data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday.

Trading conditions were rather tight ahead of the U.S. NFP report. It wasn’t a complete snooze fest, though, since AUD was in recovery mode while NZD felt selling pressure.

Japan’s economy likely posted its equal second-best stretch of uninterrupted post-war growth, a government index for August showed on Friday, a nod to strong global demand and premier Shinzo Abe’s aggressive stimulus measures.

The dollar rose on Friday and is on track for its fourth consecutive week of gains as investors trimmed some short bets on growing views that interest rate markets are underpricing the extent of U.S. rate increases over the coming months.

Asian session traders favored the Greenback ahead of the NFP report, while domestic catalysts dragged the Aussie and the pound lower.

Asian stocks rose on Friday and the dollar hit a seven-week peak, riding on economic optimism ahead of a U.S. job report later in the day.

The dollar touched a fresh seven-week high versus a basket of currencies on Friday, supported by hopes for progress on U.S. tax reforms, with traders looking to U.S. jobs data for near-term catalysts.

It’s all good in the ‘hood for Uncle Sam as a few Fed officials expressed their inclination for a December hike while the Trump administration took some steps forward in tax reform. 

Canada’s trade deficit unexpectedly widened in August as exports fell for the third month in a row and imports remained flat, data from Statistics Canada showed on Thursday.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, but Hurricanes Harvey and Irma continued to impact the data, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market.

The U.S. trade deficit fell in August as exports of goods and services rose to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years, suggesting trade could help to soften the blow on the economy from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Not much on the docket today, but there was plenty of action since JPY went into Godzilla mode and whupped its rivals, with GBP and CHF getting crushed underfoot.

The Bank of Japan’s policies are finally nearing a “true dawn,” Deputy Governor Hiroshi Nakaso said on Thursday as he predicted a long-awaited build-up of inflation pressures in an economy long haunted by deflation.