With the US tariff issue temporarily defused, certain commodities continue to rise to significant highs, notably Gold, Coffee, and Corn.
- Gold is making market headlines today as it continued its strong bullish rise to new all-time high prices. However, in recent hours, it has sold off by a fair amount. Trend traders will be interested in being long of Gold now, and many analysts see a profit target at the next big round number of $3,000.
- Two other commodities remain in focus, having traded at or near new all-time highs yesterday: Coffee and Corn. Coffee is the stronger bullish trend, having risen by more than 10% in just a few days, and with a more long-term bullish technical picture. Corn traded at a new 1-year high yesterday, but some analysts think this rise will probably not have much further to run. Trend traders will probably be interested in positioning long here. Although Coffee futures can be expensive, retail traders and investors can gain exposure to Coffee via the COFF ETF, although US taxpayers should beware this is probably a PFIC for tax purposes.
- Recent comments by President Trump on Gaza, Iran, and the Iranian axis in general may be weighing on the price of Crude Oil which is traded near its 2025 low. China's retaliatory tariffs on US imports will take effect next Monday, and this may also be weighing on the price of Crude Oil.
- The Japanese Yen rose strongly again yesterday, sending the USD/JPY currency pair to a fresh 6-week low, although the price later recovered. The main driver of Yen strength has been a more hawkish monetary policy by the Bank of Japan, with one member saying publicly that the interest rate should be raised further to 1%. In the Fores market, since today's Tokyo open, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency, while the New Zealand Dollar has been the weakest.
- Yesterday's releases of:
- The US ADP Non-Farm Payrolls Forecast was somewhat higher than expected.
- US ISM Services PMI data was slightly worse than expected.
- The Bank of England is holding a policy meeting today and is expected to cut its interest rate by 0.25% from 4.75% to 4.50%.
- There will be a release today of US Unemployment Claims data.