Solid risk-off sentiment continues to dominate the markets, with the US dollar continuing to advance against the yen and European currencies, while most equity markets continue to trade lower.
➡️ Risk appetite continues to be low, with stock markets trading lower almost everywhere. The Korean indices KOSPI and Chinese HSI are reaching new multi-year lows, while US indices are close to major collapses. However, the NASDASQ 100 technology index saw the main support at 14657 continue to hold.
➡️ In the Forex market, the US dollar is the strongest major currency, with the USD/JPY currency pair in focus as it rises to new 11-month high with Bank of Japan openly threatening intervention but failing to take any concrete action. Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki said a few hours ago that he will "take appropriate measures against rapid Forex movements." The US dollar also made long-term highs against the European currencies EUR, GBP and CHF with a very clear directional trend. Trend traders in the Forex market will be more interested in being Long USD/JPY and Short on EUR/USD as these are the two major dollar pairs that historically tend to trend most reliably.
➡️ Most commodities are trading lower in the current risk-off environment, with gold, silver and crude oil all down yesterday. Some soft commodities are mostly holding value, but none are reaching new highs.
➡️ Yesterday's release of IFO data on the German economic climate came as expected.
➡️ Consumer confidence data from the US CB will be released later today. It is expected to show a reading of 105.5.
Credit by DailyForex.com