Markets have seized on recent comments by President Trump suggesting he may show flexibility and target some of the tariffs due on 2nd April, sending US stock markets a bit higher as they continue to recover from recent lows.
Markets are primarily focused on President Trump's comments about all the blanket tariffs he has pledged to impose on US trading partners on 2nd April, promising "flexibility" and to be "fair". Asian markets are mixed since this week's Tokyo open, but US stock market futures are all trading a bit higher off hours.
- Gold
remains in focus after it continued to rise over into record blue-sky territory last week, trading at a new all-time high above $3,050 and threatening to reach even higher prices. However, the price has made a bearish retracement and is now about one day's average range off the high. Trend traders will probably still be bullish on Gold.
Copper futures gained again on Friday to close at a new 9-month high price. There is plenty of demand for this industrial metal which is widely used in AI applications, so it could be a good trade or investment on the long side. Copper micro futures are relatively cheap, with a position size of about $10,000. For smaller amounts, retail investors can look for spot Copper CFDs or ETF (CPER) alternatives to participate.
In the Forex market, since Tokyo opened today, the strongest major currency is the Australian Dollar, while the weakest is the Japanese Yen, putting
the AUD/JPY currency crossin focus. This is a classic "risk-on" move, with the Yen the major safe haven and the Aussie a risk barometer, although both currencies can and do move for their own domestic reasons.
- The EUR/USD currency pair
remains in focus, but that is because it has been reaching new multi-month highs and is close to a valid long-term bullish trend.
Governor Ueda of the Bank of Japan stated a few hours ago that the Bank will continue hiking rates if the outlook for prices also rises. Nothing new there but this is a subtle hawkish message that the Bank wants to raise rates as soon as it can. However, the Yen is weaker today, mainly due to weak risk-on sentiment dominating markets.
There will be releases today of Services & Manufacturing PMI data for the USA, Germany, the UK, and France.