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The Russia story refuses to go away for President Trump, this time with rumours circulating that the President’s son in law Jared Kushner met with senior board members of a Russian bank under sanctions imposed during Russian incursion into Ukraine. The headlines come only a few days after the President failed in his bid for a new healthcare plan, adding to the troubled start for the new administration.
Rather than kill the Trump rally it has more put a slow puncher in the bubble as fears grow that the republican party is more than happy to block everything the new president does, rather than approve, and let a candidate they have never supported succeed as President. This kind of political posturing is not rare in Washington, but the adverse effect it could have on markets is very real.
However, yesterday saw stocks on Wall Street turnaround from lows to post only moderate losses after being down heavily just after the open. That has led to an upside in equity markets this morning in Europe, and a lack of data could well mean that traders focus on that turnaround on Wall Street. Snapchat yet again rallied strongly overnight after a Citi upgraded their stance on the new stock.
The US dollar is key to a lot of market movement recently with the sustained downside causing problems for many EURUSD and GBPUSD bears. However, the Dollar Index is approaching a key downside weekly trend line which could well halt the slide in the coming days. The trend line support coincides with the lows from this week at 98.85.
The dollar weakness means we have broken YTD highs on EURUSD, now trading well through the 1.0800 level, however, yesterday we did see a rejection of the trendline resistance at 1.0870. The 1.0870 level is an important one as it’s also highs from back in early December.
Today sees Fed speakers dominate the calendar as Fed Chair Janet Yellen headlines, with Kaplan also speaking. More dovish comments could well see the downside extended on the greenback.
