Federal Reserve meets this week

US stocks advance continued last week on US-China deal optimism with quarterly results painting a mixed picture of US economy. The SP 500, Dow and Nasdaq uptrend is intact with all three rising above their respective 50-day moving averages. SP500 doubled its gain to 1.2% while the ICE US dollar turned 0.6% higher last week.

Five out of six largest developed market indexes advanced last week. FTSE led advancers as UK parliament rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s rapid timetable for Brexit: it rallied 2.4%. Four out of six major currency pairs reversed previous week’s dynamics, and the range of major currency pairs’ weekly fluctuations almost halved as it shifted up. The Swiss franc was the leader in terms of percentage change: it fell 1% against the US dollar.

This week’s economic calendar is heavy with central bank meetings as companies continue reporting third quarter earnings. The Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada will release their policy decision this Wednesday and the Bank of Japan meets on Thursday. Central banks of Canada and Japan are expected to keep interest rates unchanged, and the Fed is widely expected to cut rates for the third time this year by a quarter percentage point.