The dollar rally paused on Friday and looked poised to finish its best weekly gain of the year with a whimper, when in a repeat of the Thursday session the, Bloomberg dollar index first rose more than 0.1% during Asia hours before slumping around the European open as month and quarter-end flows came into play again.
Hurricane Irma destroyed half of Florida’s citrus crop when it tore through the state earlier this month, as we reported earlier this month. The state’s orange growers at the time described the damage from the storm as the worst they’d seen in their lifetimes, as we reported at the time.
Many of the affected groves of oranges and grapefruits were approaching harvest, too – and their destruction helped send the price of orange concentrate futures rocketing higher.
Odd day. Low volume, small range in stocks. Good macro. Some questions over just how 'miraculous' Trump's tax plan will be for the middle-class... but the day's trend across FX, bond, and commodities was set early on when Asia closed and dollar-sellers, bond-buyers, and precious-metal-purchasers came back to play...
Risk is "Contained"...
Yesterday, in its latest triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, the Fed admitted what had been obvious to everyone else: Fed policies unleashed over the past decade have made the rich richer, even as the American middle class has continued to shrink.
In a continuation of trading patterns observed over the previous two days, on Thursday the global bond rout deepened in the aftermath of the release of President Trump’s tax-cut plan, Janet Yellen's recent hawkish comments and renewed optimism over the health of the U.S. economy.