Good Morning,
- Dollar gains, commodities lose as markets play Fed hawkish risk in the next week…
- Asian shares: Japan's Nikkei 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.06% (07:02 GMT), Korea's Kospi -1.07%, Australia's ASX 200 -0.27% and China's Shanghai 0.88%.
- The dollar index held steady at 84.329, holding within striking distance of Tuesday's 14-month high of 84.519.
- Talks the FED might take a hawkish turn at its policy meeting next week, possibly by dropping its commitment to keeping rates low, has seen U.S. Treasury yields steadily creep higher and gives new support to the dollar.
- Two-year US Treasuries on track for their highest weekly close since April, 2011. But yields on 10-year Treasuries are currently at 2.55 percent, well below the 3.30 percent seen in April, 2011.
- The European Union yesterday agreed to begin their new sanctions today, while the United States will announce their new sanctions later today. The EU will review how the truce in Ukraine has held before the end of the month and could then lift some sanctions. Poland complained yesterday that it is getting only half of the natural gas it wants from Russia. Other European countries received normal deliveries, and it was thought that the lower deliveries to Poland were a warning to the EU.
- ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said the ECB would prefer not to be forced to spend billions of euros buying government debt, a process known as quantitative easing, but it cannot rule it out.
- Bank of America on EUR/USD, GBP/USD: BofA remains medium, if not long term, USD bulls. However, in the near term BofA thinks that the USD is set to correct lower, especially against the likes of EUR and GBP. "The small, 5d Head and Shoulders base in EUR/USD targets 1.3068, while the Bullish Reversal day and impulsive rise from in GBP/USD from 1.6052 point to a further squeeze towards the 1.6419/1.6487 area," BofA notes. "However, in both of these instances, bounces are opportunities to sell," BofA advises. "EUR/USD targets 1.2787/1.2694 and eventually the 1.22/1.18 area. Meanwhile, GBP/USD targets 1.5722 and eventually the 1.5000 area," BofA projects.
- The British pound gained a reprieve from recent selling when a YouGov poll showed supporters of keeping Scotland in the United Kingdom have clawed back a narrow lead over separatists, just one week before Scots vote in a referendum on independence. The pound was last trade below at $1.6250 level and up on the week's trough of $1.6052.
- The dollar hit a fresh six-year high against the yen, continuing to draw strength. The dollar touched a high of 107.39 yen, its strongest level since September 2008. For the week, the greenback is up more than 2.1 percent versus the yen, putting it on track for its biggest weekly gain in almost three months.
- BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told PM Abe on Thursday he is prepared to take whatever steps needed to achieve the central bank’s 2% inflation target if it comes under threat. In a face-to-face meeting about the economy, however, Kuroda said he received no particular instructions from Abe.
- Oil prices trade to their lowest in two years, while gold sank to an eight-month trough and copper fell to a three-month low.
-Watch today: Euro zone Industrial Production, Sanctions against Russia launched, US Retail Sales.
Have a nice Weekend !
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