On Friday markets were worried about the geopolitical risk in Israel.

  • Gold surged
  • Yields move lower on flight to safety
  • Oil surged
  • Stocks moved lower.
  • USD moved higher

Although tensions remain elevated in Israel, and bombings continue, there was not the ground and/or air assault expected. So there was a reversal of the trends.

  • Gold is trading down around -$13 on the day
  • Yields moved higher with the 10 year up 7.1 basis points. The 2 year is up 4.7 basis points
  • Oil is lower with the price down around -$1.00 after trading down around -$1.31 at session lows.
  • Stocks closed higher led by the Nasdaq index which closed up 1.20%
  • USD is closing at /near lows of the day vs the EUR, GBP, CHF, CAD, AUD and NZD.

The fortunes can turn easily. Thousands have been killed on either side including innocent woman and children. Hostages are still being held and a longer term solution is still unknown.

Technically the EURUSD and GBPUSD are trading near session highs going into the new trading day, with key targets defined by the 100-hour MA and the 38.2% looming above. For a summary of the technicals for those two pairs, click on the video below:

Tomorrow the US earnings calendar heats up with Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Ericsson, United Airlines, JB Hunt. Looking ahead:

  • Wednesday: P&G, Morgan Stanley, Tesla, Netflix
  • Thursday: Philip Morris, AT&T, American Airlines, TSMC, Nokia, Intuitive Surgical, CSX
  • Friday: American Express

The Fedspeak this week is also going to be important and traders get their final words from Fed officials before they go quiet at the close of business ahead of their next interest rate decision scheduled for November 1. This week the speaker schedule is below:

Fed

Fed's Harker (a voting member) kickstarted the speeches by repeating that he felt the Fed has done enough (he said the same on Friday). Fed's Powell's views will be the most important when he speaks on Thursday at the Economic Club of New York at 12 noon.