The U.S market continued to gain strength yesterday after Monday’s massive rally. The S&P500 finished the day with a 0.23% gain, while the Nasdaq finished higher by 0.32%.Even though it was a positive session, investors were reluctant to drive the markets significantly higher, as participants preferred to adjust their portfolios for Thursday and Friday’s sessions.
Although the U.S lacked major market moving data yesterday, individual stocks still had an influence on the session. Similar to Toyota, General Motors also joined the list of automakers that are forced to now recall their cars. According to the Toronto Star, General Motors said that more than 256000 Canadian vehicles are included in a fix in a recall to fix power steering motors for several compact models.
As mentioned in prior reports, from a technical point of view the indices seem to be heading towards their prior highs. The S&P500 broke major resistance and confirmed the break out during yesterday’s session. Even though a pull-back is due for this chart, one could expect prior resistance to act as support.
Forex
On the Forex market the Dollar index presented relative weakness and finished the session down by -0.3%. The index has recently formed a minor range, between 80.1-81.1 points. Even though indicators are pointing towards a minor correction, the pull-back could be short-lived, especially as the Dollar has recently shown a positive correlation with the U.S stock market. For further information see yesterday’s report.
On individual pairs the EUR/USD managed to hold its ground around 1.3570. Monday’s news had a positive effect on sentiment as the EU unemployment rate beat analyst’s double digit expectation and came out at 9.9%. According to the EU’S statistics office, around 15.7 million people were unemployed in the euro-zone, up 136,000 on the previous month. Spain was a major drag, this time round, coming out with an 18.8% unemployment rate. Yesterday’s fundamental data also from the Euro-zone also had an effect on sentiment as inflation figures showed that prices were lower than expected. This boosted confidence, regarding the ECB’s upcoming decision and should give the bank one less thing to worry about.
On the other side of the globe, Australia shocked the markets by raising its key rate to 4%. Governor Stevens addressed the markets Tuesday and stated that the rate hike was necessary to normalize Australia’s rate level and bring it “closer to average”. Market participants brushed of the news, causing only minor movement on the AUD/USD. From a technical point of view, the AUD/USD bounced higher but got stuck around resistance of $0.9043.
Canada also took the stage during the session releasing its interest rate decision. Unlike Australia, the BOC preferred to keep rates at a low of 0.25%, keeping its promise – holding rates at a low until the end of the second quarter. Even though bank members acknowledged a recent economic improvement, they were reluctant to tamper with the regaining confidence. The USD/CAD dropped during the session and now seems to be heading for its double bottom support level.
The Day Ahead
Things should start to pick up over the next couple of trading days as major data is scheduled to be released. Today the U.S will take the stage, releasing its ADP Non-farm Employment Change. The figure is normally scrutinized by investors as it can give clues as to the outcome of the NFP result, scheduled to be released on Friday. The market is expecting a -10k result compared to a prior -22k.
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