Major American companies, including Procter&Gamble and Netflix, will release their reportings today - 20.10.2020

Today, the US dollar index is declining for the 3rd day in a row within a 2-week neutral range. Fed officials said nothing important yesterday. As a rule, the closer the US presidential elections get, the less market activity. Market participants are now awaiting the Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump debate on Thursday. This is likely the last chance for incumbent President Donald Trump to win over voters. According to opinion polls, he is 10% behind his rival Joe Biden. Let us remind that the Democratic Party previously advocated increased economic assistance to business and the population. This could have a negative impact on the US dollar and and, vice versa, positive - on stock, gold and commodity prices. Today the US will  publish a report on the housing market for September: the outlook is positive. The Australian dollar resumed its drop after Chris Kent, Assistant Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, stated that his office was ready to mitigate the monetary policy by cutting the rate to 0 and increasing bond buybacks.

World oil prices continue to be traded in a narrow range. OPEC will make the final decision to increase production by 2 million barrels per day only in late November. Now investors are trying to assess the danger of the 2nd wave of coronavirus and how this could reduce global demand for oil. In early autumn, it was about 92% of the pre-pandemic level, but since then the number of coronavirus cases has increased. Today the independent American Petroleum Institute is to publish the US oil reserves changes during the week. Their slight reduction is expected.