Summary:
- British pound is the poorest currency in the G10 basket following BoE regional agents survey
- Antipodean currencies on the rise despite weaker than estimated trade balance from China
- Bitcoin keeps growing on the back of fresh revelations with regard to SegWit2x
It’s been a benign session so far as the macroeconomic calendar hasn’t offered many to digest. Looking into the FX market one may notice that the British pound has been the weakest currency (it’s declined below 1.31 during the day) thus far mainly due to a BoE regional agents survey. The research highlighted that expectations of investment growth in the following two years had been weaker. On the other hand, the Antipodean currencies have led the gains despite a little bit disappointing trade data from the Chinese economy. However, the NZ dollar might be in demand owing to the RBNZ meeting scheduled for tonight. Under this link you can find out more on this event. Finally, the greenback is trading flat at the time of writing.
The Bitcoin price marked a significant increase earlier today following the tweet from Charlie Lee who is the creator of Litecoin and former Coinbase executive. He tweeted that Nick Szabo, the smart contracts pioneer whom the Bitcoin community considers as a figure closest to the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamato, has publicly expressed his opposition against SegWit2x. In the aftermath the virtual currency is gaining as much as 6%.
This week has been quite calm with regard to the European stock markets thus far, however one needs to mention the session on Tuesday which brought aggravation of moods. Namely the major indices ended the day ca. 0.5% lower while the DE30 slid below a short-term support line. Nevertheless it doesn’t mean that bears have already taken control of the market as another support area has halted deeper declines as of yet. As for now all major European equity markets are dribbling below the breakeven line but losses aren’t significant.
Wednesday is going to be dominated by the RBNZ meeting which will deliver fresh update on the economic performance. Even as odds for a change in rates are virtually zero, the NZD might benefit from this event as it’s been able to stay above a key technical level against the greenback. Besides, the DoE will release its weekly report on US oil stocks. Let us come forth with a full tally of releases for today.