{"id":81848,"date":"2026-07-06T18:54:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/?p=81848"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:54:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:54:42","slug":"general-market-analysis-06-07-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/general-market-analysis-06-07-26\/","title":{"rendered":"General Market Analysis \u2013 06\/07\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quiet Finish to Trading Week with US Markets Closed \u2013 Gold up 1.2%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global markets finished the week on a relatively subdued note on Friday as the US Independence Day holiday kept American financial markets closed, leading to lighter trading volumes across most asset classes. Despite the quieter conditions, the weaker-than-expected US employment data released on Thursday continued to support investor sentiment, helping global equity markets post their strongest weekly performance in almost two months as expectations for further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes eased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wall Street was closed, currency markets remained active, with the US Dollar Index edging 0.03% higher to 100.88. Most major currency pairs traded within relatively narrow ranges, although the Japanese yen remained volatile as traders continued to monitor the possibility of official intervention following its recent weakness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Treasury markets were also closed, leaving benchmark yields unchanged from Thursday’s close. The 2-year Treasury yield finished at 4.137%, while the benchmark 10-year yield held at 4.483%, with investors continuing to assess the implications of the softer labour market data for the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commodity markets also experienced a relatively quiet session. Brent crude oil rose 0.45% to settle at $72.12 per barrel, while WTI crude gained 0.13% to finish at $68.78 as traders continued to monitor developments surrounding ongoing US-Iran peace negotiations. Gold was one of the stronger performers, climbing 1.26% to $4,174.90 per ounce as lower US interest rate expectations and a softer US dollar continued to underpin demand for the precious metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dollar Turns After Weak Jobs Data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dollar’s momentum took a sharp U-turn in trading last week as US employment data came in well under expectations. Non-Farm Payrolls data missed expectations by over 50k, which then saw the Dollar Index take a hit of just over 1% from high to low over the course of the week. Traders are now expecting more volatility for the dollar in the coming days as the market continues to reset Fed interest rate hike expectations. The most crucial move probably came in USDJPY, which had hit a 40-year high earlier in the week, with traders on high alert for intervention from the Japanese authorities. It dropped over 150 pips on Thursday after the data but is still trading at elevated levels, and traders remain wary of potential intervention. Traders are now expecting the dollar to remain under pressure for the start of the week, and with little fresh data due out of the US this week, we could see it fall further into recent ranges. However, the risk of another turn would come from any escalation of hostilities in the Middle East or more hawkish indications from the Fed Meeting Minutes, which are due out on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet Calendar Start to the Trading Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With US markets returning from the long weekend, trading activity is expected to pick up as the new week begins. Although today’s economic calendar is relatively light, with nothing of note due for release in the Asian or London sessions, there will be an early focus on US data once the New York session begins. Investors will be watching the release of the US ISM Services PMI data early in the day for further clues on the health of the US economy and the outlook for Federal Reserve policy. Market expectation is for the data to print at 54.2, slightly lower than last month’s 54.5 update, and anything significantly off expectations could see some volatility across markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quiet Finish to Trading Week with US Markets Closed \u2013 Gold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":81849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-market-analysis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81850,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81848\/revisions\/81850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}