Market Snapshot – Focus Turns to Fed

Weak Agent Report Spoils Pound Rally

The star of the day so far has been the pound and it has to be said that the currency has been the darling of the markets for around a week now. Today is a day of consolidation in most of the markets as the investors and traders await the FOMC later in the day but that has not stopped the GBPUSD pair from making a round trip after its retail sales data. The data came in much stronger than expectations which helped the pair to shoot higher and it trades above the 1.36 region for a brief while. But the weak agent report came as a dampener on this rally and this pushed the pair back and it now trades just above the 1.35 region, being choppy and not being sure on which direction it wants to go in the short term. The FOMC announcement awaits later in the day.

Gold Prices Wait for the Fed

Gold prices have been steady at best, over the last few days as we have seen some weakening and then a bit of strength since the beginning of the week. The market has been choppy with no sense of direction and this is likely to continue through till the FOMC later in the day today, which should then determine the short term direction for much of the market. The Fed is expected to be hawkish and if that happens, then we should see a bout of strength in the dollar which would help to push the gold prices below the 1300 region.