Currencies
EUR/USD – dropped under the lowest point reached after the Brexit referendum and has reached the lowest level since March 2016. Initially we saw the EUR move higher when Draghi said that the ECB had not discussed extending QE beyond what was planned (March 2017). Even though the ECB will wait and see to December to decide what to do with regards to QE, they did not discuss it at all this meeting. In December though, they are willing to extend it if warranted, creating downside for the EUR. We are close to breaking below the 1.09 level at the moment, with the nearest support around the 1.08 level.
USD/JPY – moved up as the USD kept on strengthening, especially due to the weakening of the EUR, although this only reinforced this move, and we also broke out of the triangle and the 104 level again. It has moved down now amid reports of an earthquake in Japan.
GBP/USD – moved further down as also the data out of the UK was not that good, but did not cause a large drop, in part because there were some positive revisions of the data. We can see that there is some short term resistance around the 1.232 level, and with the USD which keeps on strengthening it looks unlikely we will see a break of this level soon.
USD/CAD – continued to move up as the USD strengthened further and also oil moved down. We are approaching the resistance just below the 1.33 level quite fast, and for those who entered near the support around the 1.30 that is a nice profit in 3 days of trading!
Indices
DAX 30 – saw a lot of volatility as could be expected with the ECB press conference. While the ECB didn’t discuss tapering QE, they also didn’t talk about extending it, although this is a possibility if they see a need for it, helping the DAX to firmly break above the downwards trend line.
Dollar Index – has reached the highest level since March this year which is also a resistance level. The strong data yesterday has further boosted the expectation that the FED will move to increase the interest rate this year.
S&P 500 – moved down for the first time in 3 days as a drop in oil prices has dragged the S&P lower. The nearest support can still be found around the 2122 level.
Commodities
Gold – after another attempt at the resistance, gold moved down as it failed to reach and threaten the resistance amid an USD which keeps on strengthening.
Oil – moved down and away from the resistance which, while it was fragile, is still in place. We moved down amid some profit taking and also due to comments out of Russia that they could increase production if needed and also Nigeria which have lowered their oil price in an effort to increase its market share. In addition, the resilience of the USD is also putting a break on oil.
Stocks
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) – will be holding an event next week on the 27th to announce a new Mac computer. It has been trading around the highest level in nearly a year, as trouble for the competition (Samsung (KS:005930) with the Note 7), should be working in its favour.
AT&T (NYSE:T) – held talks with Time Warner on the possibility of a merger of takeover. The news was not received well, as the stock fell immediately when news of this broke.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) – is moving sharply up in afterhours trading as it reported strong earnings. Revenue came in at $22.33 billion, while $21.71 billion was expected amid an especially strong performance from its Cloud services.