Fawad Razaqzada

The US dollar has extended its gains this morning, even if oil prices finished lower for the fifth consecutive day yesterday. Oil prices have bounced back in this first half of today’s session, causing a bit of pressure on currencies that rely on energy imports such as the euro, pound, Swiss franc, and Japanese yen. But it was the dollar that was exerting the most pressure, amid hawkish FedSpeak. Meanwhile, European indices and precious metals were also under a bit of pressure amid the strength of the dollar.

Donald Trump’s speech at the UN seems to have poured cold waters on any hopes of a deal. Crude oil, the US dollar and bond yields all bounced back from their lows, causing fresh pressure on foreign currencies, European indices and to a lesser degree precious metals.

Gold has started the new week on the back foot after ending a three-week losing streak with gains over the final two sessions of last week. The rebound came as the dollar’s rally stalled and oil prices retreated, while a broader improvement in risk appetite lifted major equity indices and extended Bitcoin’s recovery to $85,000. For now, consolidation is the name of the game, but if the US dollar, bond yields or oil prices start moving higher again then this will negatively impact the price of gold.

The EUR/USD recovered from a modestly weaker start after after spending the last two days of last week in tight consolidation following a sizeable drop in response to a hawkish Fed rate hike in mid last week. The pair was held back as a result of Germany’s regional elections at the weekend, which made the nation’s political picture a little messier. But the downside has been limited owing to expectations of another ECB rate hike this year, and, more to the point, due to the fact oil prices have eased further at the start of this week.

Heading into the week ahead, the macro calendar is quieter. But for as long oil remains supported, the US dollar forecast will remain bullish. Not only will oil prices be important for determining the direction for the dollar and USD/JPY, but bond yields too, and by extension, risk appetite.

A hawkish Fed knocked equities and gold lower for only a few hours, and both recovered their losses before the session was out.

Gold prices rallied sharply today, reversing yesterday’s losses and some. It is quite common for markets to reverse the FOMC-related moves within 24 hours and yet again this has proven to be the case. Now that we are back to pre-FOMC levels, the key question is where do we go from here? While gold may have formed a technical bullish signal today, the fundamental backdrop remains tied pretty much to the same factors that have been weighing on prices lately...

The Fed was quite hawkish yesterday and we saw what kind of a reaction it triggered in the FX and equity markets. Yet despite those initial falls, index futures have already recovered to around their pre-FOMC levels at the time of writing today. The resilience of the stock market continues to surprise.

Still disappointed from yesterday’s news that the CLARTY Act, a digital-asset market-structure bill, failed to clear the threshold required to advance to full Senate consideration, crypto traders were not in the mood to buy the dip. But what are the charts telling us?