Author: Robert Jessi

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spent Thursday doing its now-familiar trick of grabbing a geopolitical bid and then quietly handing most of it back. A fresh tanker attack in the Gulf of Oman, paired with a decision by the United Nations to halt the evacuation of stranded sailors, lit a bounce of roughly 2.3% off a low near $69.00 to a high around $72.50, before the move faded into the close near $71.50. The honest label for the session is a reflexive fear bid that the tape promptly sold into. Crude Oil is still trading within a whisker of where it…

Spot Gold seesaws around the $4,000 mark on Thursday, confined to a tight intraday range. The bright metal managed to remain above its recent multi-month low of $3,959, as the US Dollar (USD) lost upward steam, despite holding near fresh one-year highs. The United States (US) packed macroeconomic calendar brought some relief as it showed growth remained strong throughout the first quarter of the year. The annualized reading of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was upwardly revised to 2.1% from the previous estimate of 1.6%. On the inflation front, data indicated that the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index climbed…

USD/CAD halts its winning streak that began on June 10, trading around 1.4230 during the Asian hours on Thursday. The currency pair depreciate as the US Dollar (USD) declines despite rising market expectations of Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate hikes later this year.Traders are positioning for tighter monetary policy after Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh signaled a firm focus on taming inflation, noting that the broader economy remains on a stable footing. Reflecting this hawkish shift, the CME FedWatch tool shows that markets are now pricing in an 83.1% probability of rate hikes by the end of December.Traders focus now…

The Bank of Canada today published a report summarizing the feedback it received from stakeholders and the Canadian public during consultations on its monetary policy framework. Every five years, the Bank of Canada and the Government of Canada review and renew the agreement on Canada’s monetary policy framework. The agreement will be renewed before the end of 2026. In preparation, the Bank held consultations to gather views on inflation, monetary policy and on three key challenges to Canada’s economy that were the focus of the Bank’s research. In a world with more adverse supply shocks affecting inflation dynamics and…

Gold is nursing losses early Thursday, looking to retest seven-month lows near $3,950, following a failed recovery attempt above the $4,000 threshold.  Gold: More downside in store?As analysed a week ago, Gold remains a lose-lose trade amid increased bets of at least two US Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate hikes this year, with the first one as early as September.Elevated inflation levels, combined with a surprisingly hawkish-sounding new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, have doubled down on Fed rate hike bets, bolstering the US Dollar (USD) uptrend while spelling doom for the non-yielding Gold.The Greenback also remains underpinned by expectations of a…

If you read this column regularly you’ll know that this itself was not surprising for two reasons. First, BTC cyclical tops are often at the end of the year following the BTC halving (2024 in this case). And second, because BTC cyclical crashes have historically been much more than 50%.  However, BTC investors were buoyed by its resilience through the first month of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war when the asset performed way better than the stock market or gold. In fact, in February and March of 2026, BTC had a great run from $63,000 to $81,000. This, unfortunately, was short lived…

High Templar Tech to buy back 40.9M shares for $130.8M

The year 2026 is poised to be a breakthrough one for open banking in Canada. Bill C-15 — which would implement measures from the 2025 federal budget — is currently before Parliament. If passed, Bill C-15 will complete and modernize Canada’s Consumer-Driven Banking Act by giving the Bank of Canada oversight over a new open banking framework that lets consumers and small businesses securely share their financial data with the third parties they choose. To date, discussions about this new framework have largely focused on promoting competition and technological innovation. Equally important, however, is its potential to help women experiencing…

Calmer markets are allowing several currencies to take a breather against the strong dollar. If sentiment keeps stabilising from here, data and Fedspeak should take over as primary drivers. Today, we expect decent US spending figures, but a muted . Our baseline view is that won’t break below 1.130 USD: Core PCE May Come In Cooler Than Expected The dollar seems to have halted its run on some risk sentiment stabilisation, but it’s still early to rule out another leg higher in the greenback. Any new signs of AI jitters could be the catalyst for more safe-haven-related dollar demand. At…

The USD/JPY pair trades close to its fresh all-time high near 162.00 during the European trading session on Thursday. The pair advances as the US Dollar (USD) continues to outperform its peers due to firm speculation that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will tighten its monetary conditions this year.As of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades slightly higher at around 101.56, closer to its over-a-year high of 101.80 posted on Wednesday. US Dollar Price This week The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies…