Oil prices hit a six-week high on Thursday as oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated ahead of a storm, while an incident with a British tanker in the Middle East highlighted tensions in the region. However, prices gave up most gains as OPEC forecast that world demand for its crude would decline […]
Author: Alfonso Esparza
The Canadian dollar gave back the gains ahead of the Fed Chair Powell’s testimony before US congress. The Bank of Canada (BoC) held the benchmark rate unchanged as expected at 1.75 percent but was more dovish in its statement. The main source for the BoC’s pessimism is trade disputes which impact commodity prices weakening demand. […]
The Canadian dollar is down 0.10 percent versus the dollar on Monday. The loonie started the week on the wrong foot versus the greenback after diverging jobs report on Friday. Canada lost 2,200 jobs in June, while the US added a massive 224,000 positions to rebound from the disappointing May report. The Bank of Canada […]
The Canadian lower dropped 0.19 percent on Friday, but given strong fundamentals and a central bank likely to keep rates steady the loonie was the only major currency to end in the black agains the greenback this week. Job numbers in Canada were lower than expected after the gains in the past two months. The […]
OANDA Senior Market Analyst Alfonso Esparza talks with Alishia Seckam of Business Day TV in South Africa to discuss the the rise of gold as a safe haven, why the US dollar lost the crown to the yellow metal and what is in store for the rand as emerging markets rise on the verge of […]
OANDA Senior Market Analyst Alfonso Esparza joins Jazz FM’s Jonny Hart to review the past week and preview the week ahead. On the agenda this week is the the aftermath of a monster US jobs report that is putting into question the number of upcoming rate cuts, Trade war uncertainty runs higher on Trump tweets […]
The Canadian dollar was flat on Thursday as the volume in the market was subdued with the Fourth of July holiday in the States. The loonie has risen as the market is pricing in more than one rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year. President Trump continues to pile pressure on the Fed to […]
The Canadian dollar rose 0.34 percent on Wednesday. The US market closed early to start the fourth of July celebrations, but the dollar is on the back foot as the ADP came in lower than expected and the services PMI put together by the ISM is slowing down. The loonie got a boost from a […]
Government policy uncertainty and a poor earnings outlook will keep the stock market from rallying any further this year, according to Goldman Sachs. Low interest rates have boosted U.S. equity valuations this year, bringing the S&P 500 to record highs, and investors are hoping long-term yields dropping even more will lead to even higher stock […]
Job creation looks to have had another rough month in June, with private companies adding just 102,000 new positions, according to a report Wednesday from ADP and Moody’s Analytics. That missed even the meager 135,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and comes off the weak May growth of just 41,000. The May number […]