The soaring dollar is the main driver so far this week as the DXY hit its highest level since November last year. The surge arose as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) revealed an increase of job openings to 9.6 million for August. Currencies across the board fell against USD, with the exception of JPY, which briefly touched the 150 USD mark before violently spiking 2% in the opposite direction. Rumours abound but no comment from the Japanese officials as of yet.
Half way into China’s golden week and the rest of the Asian markets have so far given little reason for celebration. Hang Seng down 2.69% on Tuesday’s close, with the Nikkei also showing weakness as it fell 1.64%. Both following poor results from the previous day. The Chinese market remains closed.
Moving further west, the FTSE 100 continued its decline today, down 0.54%. A performance mirrored closely by the DAX and the CAC 40, with both falling just over a percentage point on the day.
The US markets seemed determined to not be left behind, following in the rest of the world’s footsteps, with the DOW, S&P and Nasdaq closing at -1.29%, -1.37% and -1.87% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now negative for the year.
Selling pressure in Gold continued to push the metal down on Monday and Tuesday, briefly touching $1815. Silver performed equally poorly, struggling to maintain $21 at the time of writing.
More economic data is expected this week in the form of employment change, jobless claims, before the ever-anticipated Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.
