Today’s Focus on “Powell’s testimony” at 15:00 GMT. What to expect?

FXPrimus has summarized the important market indicators of the day.

Markets declined for another session on Wednesday as investors braced for Powell’s testimony for the Senate Banking Committee which is due today.

In addition, the 2nd Estimate of Q4 Real GDP figure confirmed a solid end to 2017 despite it missed economists’ expectations.

Commodities and well as equities were down.

Market players will look into EU, UK and US PMIs, the US PCE and of course the widely anticipated Powell testimony.

EURUSD – Euro subdued to $1.2190 as markets are positioning for US rate hikes after Powell. Euro-Dollar fell to a daily low of 1.2190 in the Wednesday session as bull investor sentiment accelerated due to Powell’s outlook on faster rate hikes and now expect another hawkish testimony today. The pair reached a 6-week low and could be led lower on today’s EU and US indicators and the anticipated testimony.

GBPUSD – POUND plummets as EU-UK tensions escalate following legal EU post-Brexit draft. CABLE hit a 6-week low in the Wednesday session after the EU published a draft for post-Brexit legalities that in no way benefit the UK, according to May’s response. The pair lost 150 pips and closed the session at 1.3760 following London’s reaction, and broke downside the symmetrical triangle formation yet created a double bottom at the said closing level.

USDJPY – DOLLAR weak against YEN despite Index bullish as the end of month flows weigh in. YEN gained 65 pips yesterday recovering all losses from the Tuesday session following Investor net long positions as the month closed. The pair remained under pressure despite the cheery assessment last Tuesday. Market wait for Powell’s speech while hopes you faster rates increase.
USOIL – OIL plunges following huge inventory build in both OIL and gasoline, price rejected at $61.20/b. WTI lost $1.30/b following a disappointing report from EIA while the US output and also the US DOLLAR continued to rise. EIA reported a build of 3 million barrels in OIL stocks and 2.5 million in gasoline with expectations being 2.4 million the build and a decline of 190 thousand barrel respectively.
XAUUSD – GOLD finds trades indecisive as both USD and safe-haven YEN weighed in. GOLD closed the Wednesday session unchanged following positive sentiment from the US and negative from the Japanese YEN as investors hoped for faster than anticipated rates while the end of month flows weighed in from the YEN. Price remained stable near $1318 while markets look forward to Fed’s Powell testimony.
US Indexes – DJ and S&P plunged by 1.50% and 1.11% respectively.
European Indexes – UK 100 closed 0.69% lower, DE 30 -0.44%.
Asian Indexes – ASX 200 fell by 0.68%, Nikkei 225 plummeted by 1.56%, Hang Seng trades 0.39% higher.
US Equities – Tesla dipped by 2.26%, Twitter soared by 1.72%.