Market News

It’s no secret that China’s economy has struggled in 2018, but the extent of the damage is coming more fully to light as the year rolls to a close.

This week will see more activity than last week, with quite a lot of important data due at the end of the week as the holiday period for much of the world’s major markets ends.

The Japanese Yen edged higher in Asian trade on Friday as renewed trade tensions between the United States and China revived fears of a global growth slowdown.

The Pound Sterling is still struggling to hold ground above the recently struck 3-day trough as FX traders wait for any news on the latest developments in the Brexit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest one-day gain in history on Wednesday.

With most major markets around the world closed for Boxing Day, only the US market is the exception and should be open in a few hours time.

Markets attempted to recover from the pre-Christmas declines seen on Monday, though thin post-holiday trading did little to aid in the recovery.

Though this time of year is generally the time of cheer and joy, traders worldwide are not quite feeling the love.

With must traders sitting on the sidelines as the Christmas holiday approaches and the end of the year draws near, the Pound Sterling was mired close to a 4-month trough against the common currency Euro.

Rumor has it that U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and her son, Barron, are on their way back from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where they’d planned to spend the holidays – until the government shutdown

This week will see much less activity than last week last week, with almost no important data due at all.

Safe haven currencies, predominantly the Japanese Yen, were driven higher during the Asian trading session, largely on an increase in risk aversion after the US Dollar Index fell as well as another major rout on Wall Street.

With the Bank of England policy meeting looming largely, the Pound Sterling moved higher against the US Dollar on retail sales data.

Asian markets were broadly lower on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates a quarter point on Wednesday and indicated that there will be two more rate hikes in 2019.

After three days of gains, the Pound Sterling seems to have lost some positive momentum after the release of the latest inflation data for the UK.