James Harte

The SNB caught traders off-guard today and became the latest bank in the G10 bloc to ease this month, cutting rates by .25% to 1.25%. Following an earlier cut three months ago, the SNB noted that underlying inflationary pressure had fallen once again, making conditions appropriate for further easing. Ahead of the meeting, the SNB had been in a three-week period of silence which created some uncertainty around the meeting with most investors projecting that the bank would hold rates steady.

The Nasdaq remains under heavy selling pressure across early European trading on Tuesday. The index is now down almost 3% from the all-time highs printed last week. The drop lower has been largely attributed to the correction we're seeing in Nvidia.

The threat of fresh FX intervention from Japanese authorities is growing stronger this week. USDJPY has traded back up to just shy of the level that sparked intervention back in April, fuelling speculation of fresh action. The latest push higher comes on the back of the recent BOJ meeting which saw the bank keeping policy unchanged for now. The bank noted that it was discussing options around reducing monthly bond purchases, with details to be announced at the July meeting. However, traders were seemingly a little disappointed with the BOJ's cautious approach and Yen has been punished subsequently.

of Tickmill Weaker US Helping Oil Crude prices are looking a little more muted today on the back of a fresh push higher yesterday.

Gold prices are looking a little softer through the middle of the week with gold futures turning lower from last week's highs. The safe-haven metal has been range-bound over recent months with futures prices tracking a 2,275.43 – 2,427.54 range. The main driver behind the shift in gold prices has been the changeable landscape with regard to the market's Fed expectations. Strong expectations of forthcoming easing helped drive gold prices higher earlier in the year. A subsequent period of uncertainty saw prices settle into consolidation and, more recently, a hawkish shift in the Fed outlook has seen gold prices come under fresh pressure.

EURUSD is looking weaker today on the back of comments from ECB's Rehn this morning. The ECB policymaker said that market expectations for two further rate cuts this year looked reasonable. The comments were taken as a show of support for the current outlook on rates with pricing pegging a further .45% worth of cuts before year end. Expectations had been scaled back a little on the back of the June ECB meeting. While the bank cut rates, Lagarde sounded less committed to the idea of pursuing a steady pace of easing, saying that further cuts would be data dependent.

AUDUSD is trading higher today on the back of the latest Australian inflation figures released overnight. Aussie CPI was seen unexpectedly jumping to 4% last month, up from 3.6% prior and above the 3.8% the market was looking for. Sticky inflation has been a big challenge for the RBA over recent months and despite signalling a desire to move into monetary easing, data has so far prohibited the bank from doing so. Indeed, there has been growing speculation in recent weeks that the bank might be forced to tighten rates again given inflationary conditions.

Stocks Near Highs Despite the uptick in USD this week, US stocks are holding up surprisingly well.

Following a bumper start to the year, the Bitcoin market has suffered a period of stagnation over recent months with the March highs around the $74,3k mark holding as the high-watermark for now. Shifting Fed expectations and a changeable US rates outlook has seen the market range-bound between those highs and support around $60,7k. Following a strong rally off that support level which took price back up to just short of testing the highs, Bitcoin futures have come under fresh selling pressure with the market shedding around 19%. Indeed, Monday saw BTC recording its worst day of 2024 so far.

Other Ether ETH issuers, such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton, are also expected to do the same.