The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for the United States stood at -6 in January, surpassing the forecast of -8. This indicates a slight improvement in manufacturing conditions.<\/p>\n
Australia’s Consumer Price Index is anticipated to show a 3.6% increase year over year for December, compared to the previous rate of 3.4%. Monthly CPI is expected to rise by 0.7%, following a stagnant 0% in November.<\/p>\n
The EUR\/USD is inching closer to the 1.2000 mark, its highest level since June 2021, as selling pressure on the US Dollar persists. GBP\/USD is also moving upwards, nearing 1.3800, amid generalised US Dollar weakness before an upcoming FOMC event.<\/p>\n
Gold is trading steadily around $5,100 per troy ounce, maintaining an upward trend driven by a soft US Dollar and ongoing trade policy uncertainties. Ripple (XRP) is currently valued at around $1.88, under pressure from a weak technical structure despite steady ETF demand.<\/p>\n
The dominant theme remains a weak US dollar, driven by White House tariff threats that are fueling a “sell America” flow. This is pushing capital into foreign currencies and hard assets. We should consider positioning for continued dollar weakness using options on major currency pairs.<\/p>\n
While the Richmond Fed’s manufacturing index came in better than feared at -6, this still marks a contraction in activity. Looking back, we saw similar prolonged negative readings throughout 2024 and 2025. This slight beat is therefore unlikely to reverse the broader negative sentiment towards US assets.<\/p>\n
The Euro is a primary beneficiary, pushing towards the 1.2000 level last seen back in mid-2021. Call options on EUR\/USD with strike prices at or above 1.2000 could offer a leveraged way to play this continued momentum. Similarly, GBP\/USD is showing strength as it approaches 1.3800, making it another focus for bullish strategies against the dollar.<\/p>\n
Gold’s move towards $5,100 an ounce is a clear signal of flight to safety and a hedge against the ongoing trade uncertainty. We saw how US inflation surged to over 9% back in 2022, and the current environment suggests those pressures have returned with force. Holding long positions in gold futures seems prudent.<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve meeting this week is not expected to be a major market mover, as its policy path appears locked in by the political environment. Therefore, we anticipate that implied volatility in short-dated options on equity indices may be overstated. This could present potential selling opportunities for premium collectors.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richmond Fed improves, Australia’s CPI rises, EUR\/USD nears 1.2000, gold steady, Ripple faces technical pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}