Friday, October 6 - Lookback

Event: US ISM Manufacturing PMI

Date: Monday 02 October 2017 at 14:00 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, DOW/USD

Trending hashtags: #usd, #ism

The ISM Manufacturing index continued to impress in September by coming in at 60.8 and beating expectations of 58.0. August’s figure of 58.8 was already a six year high and its seems that nothing is going to stop the roll of the US industry. Concerns of impacts from hurricanes Harvey and Irma were unfounded as the manufacturing sector continues showing strong recovery.

Event: Reserve Bank of Australia Interest Rate Decision

Date: Tuesday 03 October 2017 at 03:30 GMT

Markets affected: AUD/USD, AUD/NZD

Trending hashtags: #aud, #interestrate

The RBA maintained the interest rate at 1.5% and put the Aussie dollar under pressure by commenting that a strong AUD would slow economic expansion. The AUD/USD consolidated just above 0.7800 during the trading session as negativity felt by the RBA’s comments was partly offset by new home sales raising by 9.1% in August. This was significantly better than the decline in July of 3.7%.

Event: ECB Non-Monetary Policy Meeting

Date: Wednesday 04 October 2017 at 07:00 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, EUR/GBP

Trending hashtags: #eur, #ecb

Following the release of the ECB’s monetary policy meeting minutes the markets received further confirmation that the central bank will reduce QE for the Eurozone in 2018. The ECB’s stance was further supported by Mario Draghi’s speech later in the day. However, even the news that retail PMI growth surpassed expectations for September to 52.3 was not enough to support the struggling euro. After consolidating above 1.1750, the EUR/USD resumed declining on the back of political tensions in Spain. The vote for Catalan independence on Monday and the Spanish government suspending their parliament is likely to keep the euro under pressure going into next week.

Event: EIA Crude Oil Change

Date: Thursday 05 October 2017 at 14:30 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, WTI/USD

Trending hashtags: #usd, #nfp

The price of the benchmark West Texas Intermediary crude rose following the statistics on the weekly inventories in the US. Crude oil inventories dropped by 6 million barrels while analysts were expecting a drop of just 0.5 million barrels. Traditional commodity currency, the CAD, however failed to improve on the news, mostly due to the increase in their trade deficit to 3.4 billion in August.

Trade of the Week

Time in: Thursday 05 October 2017 at 13:00 GMT
Market : WTI/USD
Investment: $500 with 200:1 leverage
Time out: Thursday 05 October 2017 at 17:00 GMT

P&L: $2,021

If you had bought the WTI/USD with a $500 margin at the price of $49.97 and closed the deal after the EIA report on Thursday at 14:30 GMT which saw the Oil rise 2%, you might have more than tripled your investment with a tidy $2,021 profit. Note this example does not take into account spread.