Last week's risk-on rally continues, with major Asian stock indexes firmly higher and most global markets rising.
➡️ The risk-on rally that received renewed impetus last week from strong US economic data that showed no signs of rising inflation continues as markets open this week. Stocks are generally higher, especially in Asia, where we saw both the Hang Seng Index and the Nikkei 225 Index close higher by more than 1.5% on the day.
➡️ The Japanese yen remains the weakest major currency in the long term. Friday saw the USD/JPY currency pair make a new 7-month high above 145 yen. Trend traders will remain interested in remaining short the Japanese yen, which also hit a multi-year low on Friday against the euro. The Bank of Japan governor defended his ultra-loose monetary policy by pointing out that underlying inflation remains below the Bank's 2% inflation target, although the headline rate is now above the 3%.
➡️ NIn the Forex market, the New Zealand dollar was the strongest major currency during the Asian session, while the Japanese yen was the weakest. The US dollar continues to rise today after Friday's rally, with the dollar index starting to suggest that it may soon establish a new long-term uptrend technically, but its chart pattern is still strongly indicative of consolidation.
➡️ Cocoa futures continue to rise to new multi-year highs, attracting trend traders to the long side. The move is driven by strong demand and poor harvests in parts of Africa.
➡️ Bitcoin looks like it will challenge again when it appears to be a very crucial round number at $31 thousand. If the price settles above this level, it could rise further very quickly.
➡️ There will be releases later today of Swiss CPI data (expected to show a month-over-month decrease from 0.3% to 0.2%) and US ISM Manufacturing PMI data.
➡️ The Reserve Bank of Australia will hold a policy meeting tomorrow, but is expected to leave rates unchanged at 4.10%.
➡️ Today is a public holiday in Canada.
Credit by DailyForex.com