BoE in focus after dovish Fed

Important news for the day

• Thu, 18th, 13:00 CET        UK        BoE interest rate decision
• Thu, 18th, 14:30 CET        US        Employment claims

BoE in focus

Financial markets will focus on the interest rate decision of the Bank of England today. It is expected that the Bank will leave rates unchanged at 4.00%. Yet following yesterday’s decision of the Fed, we might get a further surprise rate cut as well. Markets had currently priced in that no change will be made so a cut might offer further negative momentum against the Pound. The GBPUSD currency pair might hence fall as the Dollar had picked up some steam already.

Market talk

Yesterday, the BoC did cut interest rates as it had been expected. Meanwhile the CAD did not move much and lost some momentum against the USD but also geared up steam against the EUR. Currently the trend might be due to continue. The Fed did also cut rates at it was expected. Thereafter, the Dollar started to resume some strength against other currencies and equities resumed some upside. Since the move had been previously priced in and secretly a 50 basis points cut was also on the cards, markets might now continue with further strength of the Greenback. Many currency pairs like the GBPUSD, NZDUSD among others printed bearish turnaround patterns, which could be traded as such. The upside in US stocks might hence also be negatively affected.

Tendencies in the markets

• Equities sideways, USD stronger, BTC positive, ETH stronger, oil sideways, Silver weaker, Gold weaker, JPY weaker.