The European Central Bank will hold a policy meeting today, at which it is expected to maintain its 4.50% Main Refinancing Rate.
- The European is holding a policy meeting today. It is widely expected that it will decide to keep its interest rate at 4.50%, but the statement will be closely scrutinized for policy.
- The Bank of Canada in its policy meeting yesterday held its interest rate at 5.00% as expected and gave no surprises in its somewhat ambiguous statement. The Loonie fell afterwards, with the USD/CAD currency pair trading near a 1-month high price.
- Yesterday the two major US stock indices, the NASDAQ 100 and the benchmark S&P 500, reached new all-time highs. Trend traders and investors will be looking to be involved here on the long side. Historic precedent suggests the S&P 500 Index will produce a return of about 13% over the year.
- In the Forex market, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency since the Tokyo open today. The Australian Dollar has been the weakest. The greatest volatility recently has been seen in the USD/JPY currency pair.
- Despite reaching a long-term high almost 2 weeks ago, Bitcoin has continued to struggle to trade above the big round number at $40,000.
- Yesterday’s data releases concerning Services & Manufacturing PMI in the USA, Germany, UK, and France showed services doing better in the USA and the UK, while manufacturing did better in Germany and France.
- Crude Oil has extended recent gains to trade near a 1-month high price as US stockpiles shrink and tensions continue in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
- Cocoa futures reached a new multi-year high price yesterday, which will keep trend traders interested in this commodity on the long side. It has been exhibiting a powerful bullish trend for more than a year now.
- There will be releases of US Advance GDP and Unemployment Claims data later today.
