Surging equity markets have helped push oil prices through the $80 level. Benchmark crude oil scheduled for November delivery trades at $83.14 in early New York Mercantile Exchange trade Tuesday (October 19) morning.

It has been a choppy overnight session, but the net result is that the USD is looking relatively bid (compared to recent standards). A brief surge for higher risk pairs following the release of the latest RBA minutes overnight has proved very short lived – they reiterated their hawkish stance and put the focus on the CPI data on the 27th October by stating that they will act if “risks materialize” and cited the strong AUD as a factor for keeping inflation within the band – with all of the …

Despite some positive earnings reports, investors remain concerned about recovery prospects in the US. Analysts are also mixed about the long-term effects of the Fed buying Treasuries to help spark the economy.
Gold has not looked back since clearing $1,300 and has a Wednesday (October 13) morning spot rate of $1,358. Gold remains the investment of choice for safe money speculators who seem to have bought into the prospects of gold moving toward $2,000 in the near future.
This target has been identified recently by some gold market analysts who have …

Currency markets remained volatile overnight after the fundamental release of the FOMC minutes. After coming under some downward pressure on a covering of short dollar positions ahead of the release of the minutes of the September FOMC meeting, the euro appears to have resumed its upward trend versus the dollar. Dovish in tone, the FOMC minutes seemed to indicate that the Fed is moving closer to introducing a second round of quantitative easing (QE), with some speculating that it could come as soon as the next meeting in early …

Market Update
The Dollar was the worst performing currency again last week, with the EUR/USD briefly reaching above 1.40 and AUD/USD breaking above its 2008 high of 0.985. Ongoing expectations that the Federal Reserve will increase quantitive easing in November conitnue to weigh on the Dollar. The long term valuation model from Goldman Sachs suggests that the US Dollar is expected to see further weakness short term, and may test the last previous major low – the 2008 low which is currently $5 from the current price level.
The Pound continues …

An already weak US dollar took another hit early Friday morning following the latest report on jobs. According to new Labor Department numbers, 95,000 workers were cut by US employers during the month of September.