Market Update

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, has urged the US Federal Reserve to make it is target for inflation more clear, instead of stating that it would keep interest rates near 0% until inflation moderately exceeds 2%. “Moderate isn’t a number, it’s a guard rail” …

Oil prices returned to gains due to a number of support factors, led by the output disruptions in North America and Europe. Brent crude futures are up by 2.02%, trading at $42.84 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures are up by 2% at $40.75 a barrel. …

The Canadian Dollar (CAD) rose to its highest level against the US Dollar (USD) in more than two weeks, supported by a surge in oil prices. Recent remarks by the Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem suggested that negative interest rates remain an option. The CAD is up by …

The European Central Bank is more concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy than previously expected, as shown by its September policy meeting minutes released on Thursday, Reuters reported. This indicates possibly more stimulus later this year. “The case was made for keeping a ‘free hand’ …

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Esther George, said on Thursday that the Fed’s new framework, which aims for inflation above 2%, shows tolerance for higher inflation, but not a commitment to increase it. “I interpret the revised consensus statement as a tolerance, and less as a …

Square said Thursday it bought 4,709 bitcoins, worth approximately $50 million which represents about 1% of Square’s total assets as of the end Q2 of 2020. “Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system, which …

There were 840,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending October 3rd, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed last week’s print of 849,000 (revised from 837,000) and came in slightly worse than the market expectation …

Highlights of the speech of the BoC Governor Tiff Macklem on Thursday as follows “We came into the pandemic with a number of vulnerabilities; it seems certain we will exit pandemic with higher levels of government debt.”“Our policy path will eventually have an impact on financial system vulnerabilities; lower-interest-rate environment …

OPEC’s report on oil outlook up to 2045 revealed that the Corona pandemic caused the largest decline in oil demand in history, and that the global economy will shrink by about 4% this year, while the report confirmed that oil will remain the largest component of the energy mix in …

The Norwegian Oil and Gas Union said Thursday (October 8th) that the current shutdown in production due to the ongoing strike in the oil and gas sector will increase to 966,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by October 14 unless a solution to the crisis is found for the …