Analysts continue to see the Israel/Gaza war as likely to remain contained as President Biden will arrive in Israel tomorrow, giving risky assets a weak recovery.
- As the middle east war remains contained and President Biden decides to visit Israel Wednesday, we continue to see small declines in haven assets such as the US Dollar, Crude Oil, and Gold. US stock market futures were also a bit higher. Asian indices such as the Nikkei 225 Index and the HSI are also higher.
- Minutes of the most recent RBA meeting were released showing a hawkish tinge, with emphasis remaining focused on upside inflation risks. This saw the AUD gain over recent hours.
- The Israeli Shekel has continued to weaken, yesterday reaching a new 8-year low against the USD, with the USD/ILS currency pair trading above 4 shekels to the dollar.
- Trend traders in the Forex market will be most interested in being long USD/JPY which has continued to strengthen. Over the short term, the Australian Dollar is the strongest major currency, while the New Zealand Dollar is the weakest.
- Yesterday saw the price of Bitcoin make a sudden spike up to almost $30k on a false report that the SEC had approved a proposed Blackrock Bitcoin ETF. The SEC might approve the first Bitcoin ETF within the next few weeks.
- New Zealand CPI (inflation) data came in slightly lower than expected, at 1.8% quarter on quarter, compared to the 1.9% rate which was expected. This had the effect of slightly weakening the Kiwi.
- There will be releases today of Canadian CPI (inflation) and US retail sales data.