Asia Summary and Highlights 9 Oct
Hamas accepts Trump peace plan ending 2 years of war in Gaza, returning hostages
Asia Session
Trump announced that Hamas has accepted his peace plan and will be returning hostages within 72 hours once Israel voted on it. It is also reported by multiple news outlet that both Hamas and Israel will be signing on the first phase of peace agreement soon. While it is great news for world peace progress, risk assets are seeing little encouragement while gold and oil dipped on the headline. USD/JPY is trading 0.11% lower at 152.51.
Despite the potential Israel-Hamas peace agreement, the U.S. equities are not in a cheerful mood. Regional equities, on the other hand, are more upbeat as we see Nikkei, HSI all perform strongly after a choppy start. AUD/USD is trading 0.29% higher at 0.6606, NZD/USD is trading 0.21% higher at 0.5799 while USD/CAD slips 0.1%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.11% and GBP/USD is up 0.04%.
North American session
The USD saw some early slippage but rebounded to reach fresh highs overall ahead of the FOMC minutes, with EUR/USD touching 1.16, though USD/JPY was unable to move above 153 after touching the figure early on. FOMC minutes contained no major shocks and limited signs of hawkish doubts over easing saw the USD edge a little lower, EUR/USD recovering to 1.1625 and USD/JPY slipping to 152.75.
USD/CHF advanced to .8020 from .80 while GBP/USD ended in mid-range near 1.34. AUD/USD was however firmer at .9190 from .9160 but USD/CAD only marginally weaker near 1.3960.