Asia Pacific Market Open Talking Points
- British Pound[1] kept rising, EUR/GBP[2] dominant downtrend resumed
- Sentiment was fragile, beginning with geopolitical tensions in Asia
- AUD/JPY[3] remains within bullish reversal pattern ahead of key data
See our study on the history of trade wars[4] to learn how it might influence financial markets!
The British Pound continued to receive the most attention as it achieved major technical breaks across its major counterparts. Brexit-related news continues kept upholding this trading dynamic, with markets becoming increasingly confident that the UK could avoid a ‘no-deal’ divorce before the March 29 deadline. Today, Parliament voted to accept Amendment F[5] as EUR/GBP’s dominant downtrend resumed[6].
Yet, sentiment was fragile over the past 24 hours as European equities closed mostly lower and US ones just missed a neutral day. It began with geopolitical tensions in Asia after Pakistan downed two Indian jets, increasing tensions between two nuclear powers[7]. Then, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer seemed to have poured cold water on recent progress in US-China trade negotiations[8].
The pro-risk Australian and New Zealand Dollars were some of the worst performing majors on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the anti-risk Japanese Yen was rather mixed as the S&P 500[9] attempted to trim its losses towards the end of the trading session. Crude oil prices[10] received a major boost when weekly US stockpiles unexpectedly contracted by the most since July 2018.
Thursday’s Asia Pacific session is loaded with economic event risk. The Australian Dollar looks to private
