Afternoon Update -by- Michael Oyebamiji

FOMC minute from last night highlighted fears of low inflation which is mainly due to low energy prices across the globe. the committee also made reference to global economic stability which seems to be in doubt especially risk arising from China and Japan. the committee however, remains positive regarding the US economy with strong growth in the housing market, and labor market. the possibility of rate hike still remain data-dependent.

Markets’ reaction to the FOMC minutes was rather quite but market seems to be pricing in for no rate hike in the next meeting. this sis why equities are on a strong rally across the board this morning with EURUD losing gains. gold has also lost some gain of almost $75 from the previous highs of $1264. Despite the relief rally, USDJPY is still relatively weak, this pair is still struggling at the 113 level which is under the 100MA and 200MA on the 15 Mins chart. GBPUSD after the sell-off into the week, it’s now in a tight range of 1.4450 and 1.4230.Emerging markets remains really strong so far this week.

Crude oil inventory comes out later today. this is a very important to keep an eye on. recently, we have seen a strong positive correlation between oil and stocks. if we see an increase in stock pile, oil price is likely to fall which will drag equities along.