Market News

There will be a much lighter news schedule this week compared to last week, which includes central bank input from New Zealand only, as well as a key U.S. data tranche. There are also going to be a couple of important numbers to watch from China.

July’s non-farm payroll numbers were announced on Friday and were better than expected. U.S. employers hired at a steady pace during the month indicating some underlying strength for the labor market despite a host of mixed economic signals.

The Bank of England just announced an interest rate cut. This is the first rate cut in seven years. Mark Carney, the Bank governor, announced the reduction from 0.5% to 0.25% at noon on Thursday.

The Pound Sterling was trading close to a 3-week peak versus the US Dollar, and edged higher versus the common currency euro

Asian stocks rebounded from their worst day since the aftermath of the Brexit vote. European equities also gained but the pound continued to retreat with the Bank of England expected to cut interest rates at today’s monetary policy meeting.

The US Dollar Index edged higher in Wednesday trading but remained near to the recently struck 6-week trough.

HSBC Holdings Plc reported Wednesday that its pretax profit had fallen 45 percent to $3.61 billion from a year earlier.

Disappointing GDP data continues to put broad pressure on the US Dollar which was down against the Japanese Yen and the common currency Euro in Tuesday trading.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced a cut in interest rates Tuesday by 25 basis points to a record-low of 1.50% from 1.75%.

The Pound Sterling retreated from the highs it hit last week versus the US Dollar after the latest economic data brought to light more worrying signs for the UK economy.

After hitting a two-week low against the yen on Friday, the Australian dollar came back Monday after negative US economic data late last week pushed back expectations of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

There is a news schedule this week similar to last week, which includes input from central banks concerning the GBP and AUD, as well as key U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls data. Get the economic calendar for the week of August 1, 2016 here.

It looks like the Federal Reserve is not likely to raise interest rates anytime soon. At the FOMC meeting last week, the central bank indicated pointedly that a September hike was not in the cards.

In a surprise decision, the BOJ pledged to keep interest rates steady at the close of its two-day meeting on Friday.

The Euro edged up against the Pound Sterling earlier today as markets focus on the upcoming policy meeting of the Bank of England.