European stocks and oil prices snapped a four-day losing streak and a rally in bond markets fizzled out on Thursday, as investors began to position themselves for U.S. jobs data.
A major Chinese commodities exchange took further steps to calm volatile markets on Wednesday, hiking transaction fees and widening trade limits in a move that could make exiting futures contracts more orderly. Iron ore and steel futures fell again in reaction to higher trading costs, brought in to deter speculative investors believed to be behind last week's spike in prices and volumes that had stoked fears of a destabilizing crash.
China’s March PMI reading, at 49.7, was not only at its highest since February 2015 but it also crossed above its three-month moving average—a clear bullish signal, as I explained in-depth in January.
China's commodity exchanges are trying to cool their markets as benchmarks rallied rapidly this week, with turnover of a single rebar contract on Thursday worth nearly 50% more than the total value traded on the Shanghai stock exchange.
Because we’re entering what is historically one of the quietest periods for markets, we’ll be taking the opportunity to take a longer-term view of many major FX pairs and markets over the next two weeks, starting with AUD/USD today.
On Thursday of last week I arrived back in the States after spending two weeks globetrotting and attending international investing conferences, first in New Orleans, then in Lima, Peru.
