Markets relax after this week’s rapid movements

Volatility has been minimal so far on Thursday, with all the major currency pairs trading flat, while EU and US equity futures remained near their yesterday’s closing values as well.

The EURUSD pair retested the key resistance near 1.1350, where the descending trend line from summer lows is. If the pair breaches above this resistance, the medium-term downtrend might be over, with a possible rally toward 1.1520.

At the same time, the GBPUSD pair drooped to fresh one-year lows below 1.32, pushing the EURGBP cross above its 200-day moving average.

Financial markets received some positive news regarding the new Omicron variant. It looks like it could be more transmissible but less dangerous, and vaccines should still be effective against this new strain.

“Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of reinfection with Omicron,” World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late Wednesday, adding “there is also some evidence that Omicron causes milder disease than Delta.”

Additionally, Pfizer said on Wednesday that three doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, developed with BioNTech, neutralized the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test, indicating that booster shots could be key to protection against infection.

Later in the day, the usual Thursday’s jobless claims are expected to improve slightly from the last week’s figure. Then, traders will start focusing on Friday’s CPI report, where inflation is forecast to accelerate further, likely prompting the Fed to tighten monetary policy even faster. 

Source: https://www.axiory.com/analytics/market-news/markets-relax-after-this-week-s-rapid-movements