MTS Help Center

·       Major currencies marked time on Wednesday and the Chinese yuan recovered from 11-month lows after authorities took steps on Tuesday to calm financial markets rattled by trade war worries.

The onshore yuan CNY=CFXS last traded at 6.6299 against the dollar, up 0.21 percent on the day, after opening at 6.6365.

The dollar was down 0.15 percent against a basket of six major currencies .DXY at 94.528 ahead of the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Wednesday, after notching up three consecutive months of gains.

·       EUR/USD-Forcast

With the market expected to be thin today, it's hard to buy into the story of any spikes higher but a move and hold above 1.1700 will be a good platform for buyers to build on nonetheless, since we have the German political situation put in the back pocket for now.

The risk for trading today will come in the form of the PMI readings, although they may not individually have a large impact. But the collective message that it could send may have some influence on euro price action during the day.

Other than that, there isn't much else for the market to go on so keep it simple. Near-term sentiment remains more bullish and a break above the 1.1680 and 1.1700handle will open up a move to test the 61.8 retracement and 26 June highs of 1.1720.

·       China’s yuan rose sharply against the dollar on Wednesday, a day after the central bank assured markets it would keep the currency stable amid heightened worries about trade frictions, although stocks remained under pressure.

Chinese currency and equity markets have been volatile ahead of July 6, when U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods are set to kick in. Beijing has said it would retaliate with tariffs on U.S. products.

The yuan CNY=CFXS had its worst month on record in June, losing about 3.3 percent of its value against the greenback, and the slide continued on Monday, the first trading day of July.

·       President Donald Trump will tell fellow NATO countries at next week’s summit that the United States cannot be “the world’s piggy bank,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Tuesday.

“What the president is going to do is go into these meetings with the mindset to protect the American people, stand with our partners and allies - but as he has said many times before America is thought so often to be the world’s piggy bank. And that’s gotta stop,” Gidley told reporters as Trump flew to West Virginia. Trump has pressured some NATO allies to significantly increase military expenditure.

·       Euro zone business activity nudged up slightly faster than previously thought last month but firms were at their gloomiest since late 2016, offering little hope for a more robust rebound, a survey showed.

News of stronger growth, alongside rising price pressures, will reassure policymakers at the European Central Bank who last month said the ECB would shut its hallmark bond purchase scheme by the close of the year.

But in a balanced announcement reflecting uncertainties hanging over the economy, the ECB signaled on June 14 that any interest rate hike is still distant.

IHS Markit’s Final Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, seen as a good overall indicator of euro zone growth, rose to 54.9 in June from May’s 54.1, comfortably above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.

That beat an earlier flash reading of 54.8, but the latest PMI is lagging much higher numbers from around the turn of the year. The future output index, which tracks business optimism, fell to 63.4 from 63.7 — its lowest since November 2016.

·       China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.

In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill.

But the European Union, the world’s largest trading bloc, has rejected the idea of allying with Beijing against Washington, five EU officials and diplomats told Reuters, ahead of a Sino-European summit in Beijing on July 16-17.

·       Chinese tariffs on $34 billion (£25.75 billion) of U.S. goods will take effect from midnight July 6 Beijing time, a person with knowledge of the plan told Reuters, amid worsening trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

·       Activity in Japan’s services sector accelerated in June from the previous month as new orders grew at a faster pace, a private survey showed on Wednesday, suggesting the economy gained momentum in the second quarter.

The Markit/Nikkei Japan Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 51.4 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 51.0 in May.

The composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services, rose to 52.1 from 51.7 in May.

·       Oil prices edged up on Wednesday following a report of tightening U.S. fuel inventories amid an outage at Syncrude Canada oil sands facility in Alberta, which usually supplies the United States.

Prices were also pushed up by looming U.S. sanctions against Iran, which threaten to cut supplies to an already tight market despite pledges by producer cartel OPEC to raise output to make up for the disruptions. 

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose 46 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $74.60 a barrel at 0343 GMT (11.43 p.m. ET), compared with their last settlement. On Tuesday, WTI hit its highest since November 2014 at $75.27.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were changing hands at $78.10 per barrel, up 34 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close.

Reference: Reuters,CNBC