AUD/USD Edges Lower ahead of RBA Rate Announcement

The Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday and the meeting is live, with the markets pricing in a pause at 67% and a 25-basis point hike at 33%. Just a week, ago, the markets had priced in a pause at a massive 97%.

Sunset Market Commentary

With only the US services ISM as a really market relevant data series to be published after finishing this report, markets today mainly build the Friday’s post-payrolls narrative. Yields in the US, in Europe, but also in the UK are rebounding further.

US: ISM Shows Services Sector Growth Slowed in May

The ISM Services PMI index pulled back to 50.3 in May from 51.9 in April. This falls well short of the 52.4 percent reading consensus was expecting. This is the fifth consecutive month of expansion for the services sector, but optimism has been steadily eroding since late 2022.

Euro Extends Losses After Sizzling Nonfarm Payrolls

ECB’s Lagarde hints at further rate hikes US nonfarm payrolls surges to 339,000 US unemployment rises to 3.7% The euro has extended its losses on Monday and is trading at 1.0686, down 0.21%. It was a brutal month of May for the euro, which plunged 2.98%. The euro started the month above the 1.10 line […]

June Flashlight for the FOMC Blackout Period

After raising rates by 500 bps since March 2022, the FOMC signaled at the conclusion of its previous meeting on May 3 that the tightening cycle may be coming to an end. That said, the Committee was careful to keep its options open regarding further tightening.

$3500 per Headset

Apple revealed its much-expected VR headset yesterday, just after its stock price hit a record, but the $3500 headset failed to convince investors that it will be the next big thing. It’s too expensive to democratize and rivals’ efforts haven’t paid much so far. Giving a fancy design to a product of little-interest may not be the next big thing for Apple.

AUD Short-Term Bulls Supported by Hawkish RBA and China

The Aussie dollar has been resilient against the US dollar since last Friday, 2 June ex-post better the expected US non-farms payroll/jobs data for May. The AUD/USD has managed to stage a rally of +1.45% to today’s 6 June current intraday level of 0.6662 at this time of the writing from last Friday’s low that has outperformed the EUR/USD (+0.16%) and GBP/USD (+0.05%) over the same period.

RBA Board Raises Cash Rate by 0.25% to 4.1% – A Further Hike Expected in July.

The Reserve Bank Board raised the cash rate by 0.25% to 4.1% at its June Board meeting. The Governor’s statement has rearranged the order of previous statements to put maximum emphasis on the damage associated with high inflation and inflationary expectations becoming entrenched in the economy.

Will the BoC Resume Interest Rate Hikes?

After staying inactive for two consecutive meetings, the BoC is now expected by a decent percentage of market participants to raise interest rates when it meets on Wednesday at 14:00 GMT. The hype of another rate hike was bolstered by the much-better-than-expected GDP data for Q1. Will policymakers indeed press the button, or will they stay patient and wait for more incoming data before deciding whether raising interest rates further is appropriate?

Bitcoin Looks Set to Take a Severe Dive

The sharp move down has pushed Bitcoin’s price below its 200-week average ($26.3K). And now all the attention of position traders is focused on whether the price returns to territory above that line before the end of the week. If not, we should be prepared for a big sell-off down to $22K. This is the main working scenario, given the series of lower highs and lower lows over the past two months.