Marketwatch EU & UK

Daily Insights
May 7, 2024

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  • Last week’s jobs data showed that wage growth and hiring cooled in April, just what the Federal Reserve needed to see and for investors to increase their bets on rate cuts this year. The US Dollar started the week unchanged, and the S&P 500 gained for a third day.
  • New York’s Fed President John William stated last night that eventually there will be interest cuts, but it depends on the totality of the data and that officials need to be confident that data is moving in their direction to then make further decisions. Fed official Thomas Barkin also mentions that he expects the high interest rates to slow the economy further and to bring inflation to the desired 2% target.

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  • The euro is consolidating below 1.08 ahead of today’s Eurozone retail sales and after Germany factory orders fell by 0.4% against an estimate of +0.4% by economists. ECB officials such as De Cos and Nagel are due to speak later today.

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  • The Aussie dropped below 0.66 against the greenback following the RBA decision to keep interest rates unchanged but not showing the hawkish tone markets were expecting.

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  • USD/JPY trades around 154.39 adding 0.3% on the day after rebounding from Friday’s low at 151.86. The move is due to Japan’s top currency official Masato Kanda stating that the government does not need to intervene “if the markets are orderly”.

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  • Oil gained for a second day as tensions in the Middle East continue to scale with Israel rejecting a cease-fire offer from Hamas, leading to more risk-off in the wider financial markets.

Economic Calendar

:
AUD - Cash Rate
:
AUD - RBA Monetary Policy Statement
:
AUD - RBA Rate Statement
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AUD - RBA Press Conference
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CHF - Unemployment Rate
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EUR - German Factory Orders m/m
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EUR - German Trade Balance
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GBP - Halifax HPI m/m
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EUR - French Prelim Private Payrolls q/q
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EUR - French Trade Balance
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CHF - Foreign Currency Reserves
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GBP - Construction PMI
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EUR - Retail Sales m/m
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CAD - Ivey PMI
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EUR - German Buba President Nagel Speaks
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USD - RCM/TIPP Economic Optimism
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NZD - GDT Price Index
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USD - Consumer Credit m/m
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CAD - Gov Council Member Rogers Speaks

Market Indicators

Currency Pairs
Pair High Low
eur/gbp 0.85801 0.85716
gbp/usd 1.25707 1.25356
gbp/aud 1.90303 1.89098
gbp/nzd 2.0904 2.08614
usd/jpy 154.649 153.869
eur/usd 1.07767 1.07553
gbp/jpy 194.128 193.4
eur/cnh 7.77599 7.7635
usd/cnh 7.2227 7.21254
Equities and Commodities
Nasdaq 100 18090.5
DOW 38877.6
S&P 500 5184.65
BRENT CRUDE 83.42
WTI 78.64
GOLD 2320.11

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute any recommendation or solicitation to any person to enter into any transaction or adopt any trading strategy, nor does it constitute any prediction of likely future movements in exchange rates or prices or any representation that any such future movements will not exceed those shown on any illustration. All exchange rates and figures appearing are for illustrative purposes only. You are advised to make your own independent judgment with respect to any matter contained herein.