Market News

Good news may be in store at the pump before the July 4th weekend as oil prices dropped on Friday amid reports that an oversupply of the crude remains on U.S. oil rigs.

A surprise rate cut by Riksbank sent the Swedish Krona nearly 1% lower against its key rival, the common currency Euro.

Tomorrow, Friday, 3rd July, is a major public holiday in the U.S.A. This year, the 4th of July is effectively the 3rd of July, 2015. Find out how this affects Forex trading and when the markets will be closed here.

Now that Greece has missed a repayment worth about 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) that was due on Tuesday to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), all eyes are focused on the future of the euro and its impact in the international arena.

In the wake of Greece’s default on a loan from the IMF, the common currency Euro has remained under broad sell pressure. Though investors were hopeful for a distraction, the latest economic releases failed to provide any material support.

The results of the first opinion poll of Greek voters conducted since the weekend’s dramatic events was released this morning by the Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper. The survey showed 54% voting “NO” and 33% voting “YES” with the remainder presumably undecided.

With d(default)-day right around the corner, Prime Minister Alex Tsipris believes he hasn’t lost the battle just yet. In a television interview several hours ago, Tsipris suggested that European leaders would not have the nerve to kick his country out of the eurozone membership and that the cost of their doing so would be “enormous.”

We all expected it and it has happened. Greek banks will be keeping their doors shut on Monday for an entire week. Piraeus Bank SA Chief Executive Officer Anthimos Thomopoulos told reporters of his decision Sunday after a meeting of the government’s financial-stability committee.

The Greek financial crisis had taken a sharp turn for the worse this weekend, leading to fears of an imminent collapse in Greek liquidity, a run on the Greek banking system, a sharp fall in the Euro, and the possible eventual exit of Greece from the common currency.

This can be expected to be a dramatic week for the Forex market due almost entirely to the Euro situation. The Greek crisis seems to have reached a tipping point now, with evidence that a run on Greek banks has already started with some AMTs running dry and strong rumors that certain banks are not going to be able to open on Monday.

Alexis Tsipras turned to his Parliament last night in order to get approval for his latest bailout conditions. He was rewarded with a near unanimous authorization to hold a July 5th referendum that would reject or accept the latest stipulations offered by creditors in order to release billions of euros in bailout funds and keep Greece in the eurozone.

In a move that caught most industry leaders by surprise, international Forex broker, IronFx withdrew its membership from The Russian Centre for Regulation in Over-The-Counter Financial Instruments and Technologies (CRFIN SRO), the Russian self-regulatory body for its Forex industry.

Depending on whom you ask, Greece is either going to default next week or it isn’t. Athen’s debts are due at the end of the month and any hopes of an agreement between Greece and its creditors diminished on Thursday, after yet another emergency meeting of the Eurogroup.

Despite another standoff in the Greek debt debacle, the Euro had earlier managed to edge higher versus the US Dollar but those gains were short lived. The common currency is still extremely volatile and remains under pressure as negotiations get under way again.

The US Dollar continues to move up against its northern neighbor’s currency, closing at 1.2448 and rising against the Canadian Loonie for a fourth consecutive day.