Daily Market Insight

It is also becoming increasingly clear that the general public are becoming frustrated by both the opposition party – who seem to want to sabotage everything – as well as the ruling party who are not voting in line with their constituents. It may not be a bad idea to threaten a general election, it will force some of her party members to toe the line.
Friday was all about the GDP numbers, the market has been anticipating these numbers for the entire quarter. The read came in only slightly below consensus at 4.2% but the market may have been anticipating something somewhat stronger after President Trump had hinted 4.8% was on the cards. Despite the miss, Trump took the opportunity to gloat that this was the highest growth in over 14 years – I am sure that needs to be broken down further as I am not entirely certain this is accurate.
Yesterday was all about the UK, it promised to be a lively session and boy did it live up to its expectations – it’s a pity that it was for all the wrong reasons. The headlines were relentless throughout the day and it seemed as though every headline contradicted the next. It was widely expected that the scheduled Cabinet meeting would be to ratify the Brexit, in the end there were merely delays and by the end of it Theresa May spoke about how she had the backing of her cabinet.
Donald Trump continues to rock the boat for lack of a better phrase, he hinted early yesterday morning that he was not pleased with the latest China deal – I think that he needs to realize that the he can’t have his cake and eat it too. The natural reaction of the market was to seek out safe haven assets such as the Yen and Gold, they did reach highs and started to tipple somewhat but had to wait for the release of the FOMC minutes to get any momentum.
As expected the day was pretty muted ahead of the FOMC, the market later on decided that the Fed was going to be extremely dovish and some even thought that there would be a pause in interest rates – and so throughout the later afternoon we saw some strong dollar selling.
he oil prices continue to plummet on the oversupply issues of oil, Trump has been basking in the news and reiterated that he would like to see them even lower. There are some quarters that believe that Trump has used the recent debacle in Saudi Arabia as a bargaining chip to concede on oil prices, he did state yesterday that the US does not intend to break its relationship with the Saudis – don’t be surprised if he places tariffs on them shortly though.
Earning season is starting again with some of the major financial institutions scheduled to report on Friday, if last night was not a sound warning – buckle up because markets could get wild over the next couple of days. Global equity markets had its biggest sell off since Brexit, the impact had a delayed reaction but eventually the bond yields turned negative as we did see a small flight to safety.
Did you know that The Forex or FX Market derives its name from Foreign Exchange. It is essentially the exchange of currency (money) between two different countries. The FX market is the largest financial market in the world, and is open 24 hours per day, 5 days per week.