October 18, 2021
EUR/USD: EUR/USD is correcting in an uptrend, after a significant correction in the energy market. Thus, during the current week, gas prices have fallen to $1200 per cubic meter after last week’s anti-record of $2000. It is too early to talk about stabilization of the situation, since the filling of the EU gas storages remains extremely low, which causes speculative volatility.
Last week the US currency got support from the latest labor market data. The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US declined to 293 thousand from 329 thousand a week earlier, bringing the total number of people receiving benefits down to 2.6 million from 2.7 million a week earlier.
SELL LIMIT 1.15995/TP 1.15695/SL 1.16095
AUD/USD: The Australian dollar shows mixed trading dynamics against the US dollar during the Asian session, consolidating near local highs. Some support for the pair still comes from the US dollar’s vulnerability: investors prefer not to rush into opening new positions, waiting for the actions from Fed in the near future. High inflation, as well as expectations and forecasts of some economists of the regulator as to the terms of the possible beginning of minimization of stimulus, are already included in the current quotes, and the participants of trades would like to be more specific.
The growth of the Australian dollar was not prevented by the weak statistics on the labor market in Australia either. The employment fell by 138 thousand in September after a 146.3 thousand decline in August. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose from 4.5% to 4.6%, which, however, was better than analysts’ negative forecasts expecting growth to 4.8%.
SELL STOP 0.7400/TP 0.7372/SL 0.7414
BRENT: BRENT crude oil is strengthening. The global factor that supports the quotes – prices are at their highest since 1981, creating tensions in various markets, that’s why some producers decided to refocus on crude oil in order to save money.
Even data from the U.S. could not reverse the trend. According to the report of the American Petroleum Institute (API), weekly oil reserves rose 5.2 million barrels against 0.9 million a week earlier. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 6.1 million barrel increase in commercial oil inventories, following a 2.3 million barrel increase a week earlier. It’s worth noting that gasoline inventories in the US fell by 1.96 million after increasing by 3.23 million a week earlier.