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Dollar/yen was under pressure throughout most of the week and was unable to recover. Fear of global slowdown weighed on the pair. Japan‘s rate decision and the BOJ press conference are the major events this week. Here’s an outlook for the Japanese events and an updated technical analysis for USD/JPY.

Last week, Japanese household spending and Retail sales increased unexpectedly by 1.8% on a yearly base suggesting the moderate recovery continues. Household spending grew 2.2% from July and retail sales posted the first yearly rise in two months in August, despite a recent slowdown in automobile purchases following the termination of the governmental subsidies for low-emission vehicles. Will the growth trend continue in the ...

Euro/dollar lost ground for a second week in a row, as Spain’s issues worsened. Also Greece isn’t doing that well, and the global slowdown also takes its toll. The upcoming week is the first for the last quarter of the year, and it features many events. The rate decision is the most important one. Here is an outlook for the upcoming events and an updated technical analysis for EUR/USD.

Spain was the epicenter of the crisis once again: the new austerity budget is expected to be sufficient and prevent new measures when the bailout request will finally be made. The bank stress tests showed a need for 59.3 billion euros – not a scary number. However, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland backed down from an agreement that ...

USD/CAD moved higher for a second week in a row, despite stronger Canadian figures. Oil wasn’t helpful at all. Ivey PMI, Housing and employment data ate the highlight of this week. Here is an outlook on the major market-movers and an updated technical analysis for USD/CAD.

Canadian retail sales surged by an unexpected 0.7% in July from a 0.3% decline in June while core sales excluding automobiles climbed 0.4% offsetting the 0.4% decline in the preceding month. Both readings topped expectations paving the way to another pleasant surprise. GDP release came out better than forecasted, expanding by 0.2%, above the 0.1% increase predicted. Will the Canadian economy continue to increase the pace of growth in the coming months? ...

Precious metals zigzagged throughout the week with an unclear trend despite the deprecation of the Euro and other "risk currencies" during last week. There were several reports that were published during the previous week: the U.S GDP growth rate was revised down to 1.3%; U.S new home sales declined in August by 0.3%; U.S consumer confidence index rallied in September; U.S jobless claims declined by 26k to 359k. This mixed signal regarding the development of the U.S economy may have contributed to the unclear trend in major commodities markets. In Europe, the recent developments in Greece, Spain and Italy that included riots against austerity measures may have helped drag down not only bullion rates but also the Euro.
The ...