Limited impact from Fed minutes, Dollar slides and stocks rise

Hope you’re all enjoying the World Cup while very few trading opportunities have been popping out recently. The Kiwi hit a fresh high on Wednesday, which was sadly the only noteworthy breakout in this quiet Forex market.

The Federal Reserve published FOMC Meeting Minutes earlier this morning mentioning that officials had agreed at their June policy meeting to end the central bank’s bond-buying program by October. The Fed has been tapering their purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in incremental steps since January and has said they expect to end the easing later this year.

Today was the first time they have mentioned an end date.

The Fed officials still maintain their forecast that the U.S. economy will accelerate in Q2. They expect the employment market will remain stable and inflation is recovering. The optimism was a little surprise to the market, but the impact was limited. The Dollar continued its weakness after the minutes were released, probably relieved by raising interest rate not discussed by the committee.

Oil futures declined on the reported resumption of Libyan crude production and a bearish report on U.S. stockpiles, which were probably the best mover last night. It may move down to $100 and test this integer level.

The Asian market closed lower yesterday led by Chinese and Australian stocks. They were following the weak performance of U.S. markets and dampened by Chinese soft inflation rate. The Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.08%. Shanghai Composite closed 1.23% lower to 2039. Australian ASX 200 was down 1.06% to 5452. In European stock markets, the FTSE closed 0.3% lower, the DAX rebounded over 1.35%, and the CAC was up 0.4%. U.S. stocks bounced as the minutes relieved the concerns of interest rate rising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.47% to 16985. The S&P 500 edged 0.46% higher to 1973, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.63% to 4419.

On the data front, Unemployment Rate will be released at 11:30 AEST. China Trade Balance will be released sometime today. The focus of market may be the BOE statement at 21:00 AEST. Also, U.S. Unemployment Claims is worth noting at 22:30.