The Chinese house price index for August printed the same
prior read of 4.8%, while the Japanese industrial production number of -15.5%
for July came in better than the prior print of -18.2%,
Nonetheless, these releases did not have any noticeable effect
on their respective currencies.
Equities
Asian stock
markets were boosted on Monday as AstraZeneca resumed its trials for the
Coronavirus vaccine after putting them on hold last week due to the unexplained
illness of a participant. The pharmaceutical giant stated that trails have been
resumed after getting approval from the safety watchdogs.
Markets will
keep an eye on the Japanese ruling party leadership elections on Monday at 9:00
PM (UAE time) with a good chance of the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga
to replace Abe as a prime minister. Suga promised he would continue the current
economic and foreign policy.
|
Stock Market |
Change % |
|
+0.8% | |
|
+0.6% | |
|
+1.3% | |
|
+0.9% | |
|
+0.6% | |
|
-0.07% | |
|
+0.7% |
Currencies
The US Dollar index corrected
higher and closed the weekly session modestly in the green with a 0.4% gain. On
Monday, the price remained flat although, the technical outlook looks neutral
and the price may fall towards 92.34.
In turn, EUR/USD corrected lower last week and closed
the weekly candlestick with a Doji pattern highlighting the market’s
indecision. The technical outlook of the pair remains flat while below 1.1909,
a daily close above this level would change the outlook to positive.
GBP/USD
retreated last week to a nearly seven-week low as discussed in our last update
at 1.2761. The Sterling pound was under pressure amid reports of the UK PM
Jonson may abandon the UK-EU trade talks without a deal even he may not honor
some parts of the Brexit deal he stroke with the EU last year putting the UK
credibility at stake.
Commodities
The US crude oil price
declined last week by 3.7% while Brent oil lost 6.2% of its value affected by the
lower expectation of demand’s recovery due to surging numbers of COVID-19 cases
worldwide.
A close below
$39.60 on Brent oil and below $34.90 on US crude would change the technical
outlook from neutral to negative.
Gold remained flat and closed with a 0.3%
gain above $1,921for the fifth week in a row hinting that XAU/USD may rally
towards $2,015.
Looking Ahead
Not much
today on the economic calendar, on 1:00 PM (UAE time) eyes, will be looking at
the Eurozone industrial production numbers for July. However, starting from
Tuesday until the end of the week investors' eyes will be on high important
European, UK, and US data, alongside interest rates for three major central
banks (Fed, BoJ, and BoE).