Asian and London Session Events

It was hectic trading during the Asian session today with factors such as New Zealand politics, China’s data dump and and Brexit.

Before the session began, China released its retail sales, industrial production, and GDP data. The data shows the economy of China grew by 6.8% from last year’s third quarter release. This came about after the economy grew by 6.9% in the first two quarters of 2017. While the growth is not huge, it performed better than expected.

Retail sales in China grew immensely by 103% from the last data that was released September last year. The growth witnessed is higher than the one witnessed August and was above the expected figure.

The London session was very lively today with several political activities in Europe affecting prices.

AUD

The Australian dollar performed excellently during the Asian session. The catalysts for this are likely the strong job numbers from the country and china’s positive data.

NZD

The currency was affected by the political situation in New Zealand. The currency was performing badly through the Asian session as investors thought Winston Peters would postpone his decision for the second time. His decision which came, later on, didn’t help the NZD to overcome the bad performance, with controversy over the leadership affecting the currency even further.

The Kiwi continued its run of poor form from the Asian session after the news that the country will support the labor party instead of the National party.

GBP

The GBP performed poorly at the session with results from U.K.’s retail sales report affecting the currency. The currency came up against some selling pressure from investors after the data was released. This helped out our Forex Signal trade which we sent on October 17th:

 GBP/USD SELL Order = 1.3174 Stop = 1.3234 Take Profit #1 = 1.3149 Take Profit #2 = 1.3139 Take Profit #3 = 1.3114

The pound bounced back a little as some investors begin to look at the retail sales data as a sign that the GDP will be positive.

Britain’s New Concessions Are Not Enough, EU Leaders Tell May

Brexit talks are heating up as British PM Theresa May meets with other EU leaders today. The leaders of the EU were happy with the proposal made by May that was aimed at unblocking Brexit talks. They, however, noted that assuring EU citizens living in the UK is not enough at this stage.

May strategically aimed at shifting the main meeting agenda from divorce settlements and on trade, with 17 months left for the country to officially leave the region. She, however, focused most of her attention on settling citizens’ rights; one of the three main issues to be discussed before the exit is finalized.

Even though the development was positive, EU leaders noted that there is still more work to be done. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that signs are positive as further discussion is set for December.