HiFX Morning Update April 24 2017

HiFX Morning Update April 24 2017

The NZDUSD opens at 0.7035 (mid-rate) this morning.

This morning French voters delivered the result the markets were hoping for with independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right Europhobe Marine Le Pen advancing to the next round of voting on the 7th May. Marcon won 23.7% of the vote with Le Pen close behind with 21.7%. The result has seen the EUR gap 2% higher from Friday’s close as many now believe that supporters for Republican candidate and third place contender, Francois Fillon, will support Macron.

On Friday a stellar US existing home sales report had little effect on the dollar. The report showed existing home sales spiked 4.4% to an annual rate of 5.71 million in March reversing February’s 3.9% fall.

Late on Friday the UK’s Office for National Statistics released a disappointing retail sales report for the month of March. The report showed retail sales fell 1.8% month-on-month in March. Economists had expected to see a slight fall of 0.5% from February’s revised 1.7% rise.

Global equity markets closed out the week mixed- Dow -0.15%, S&P 500 -0.30%, FTSE -0.06%, DAX +0.18%, CAC -0.37%, Nikkei +1.03%, Shanghai +0.03%.

Gold prices were unchanged on Friday closing out the week at $1,284 an ounce .WTI Crude Oil continued to fall on Friday down 7.4% on the week closing on Friday at $49.62 a barrel.

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