Weak global economic data has helped drive the prices of WTI and Brent Crude Oil down to new 3-month lows.
- Crude Oil is in focus today as oil futures reached new 3-month low prices just a few hours ago, with dampening global demand and weak Chinese economic indicators seen as assisting these price drives lower. However, both assets have seen a bit of a bullish bounce earlier, so we may well not see any fresh lows today.
- Stock markets are mostly lower over the Asian session today, but not by large amounts. Markets are waiting to hear conference speeches from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey later today.
- The USD/JPY currency pair is trading back above ¥150.50 and is close to making a new 1-week high, showing renewed bullish impetus due to the fresh strength in the US Dollar today. This currency pair remains within a valid long-term bullish trend, so will be attractive to trend traders. In the Forex market, the US Dollar has been the strongest major currency today, while the Japanese Yen has been the weakest.
- Cocoa and Sugar futures reached new multi-year highs yesterday, before most soft commodities fell heavily later in the day. These foods will still be of interest to trend traders on the long side.
- Governor Ueda of the Bank of Japan stated that “When BoJ talks about the side effects of YCC, it includes the risk of triggering volatility in markets including FX. Desirable for FX to move stably reflecting fundamentals.” This has not yet prevented the Yen from continuing to weaken.
- New Zealand Inflation Expectations data released yesterday fell slightly, from 2.83% to 2.76%.
- There will be a release of Chinese CPI (inflation) data later today.