Powell Named Next Fed Chief Trump's nomination of Jerome Powell as next chief of the Federal Reserve didn't shock the markets.For over a week now the financial markets were taking it easy on the American dollar. Investors almost stopped trading USD pairs this week as we all waited for one important announcement that happened yesterday – President Trump’s nomination of a new head of the Federal Reserve. He chose Jerome Powell for this position, so let’s take a look at what this entails.To start with, it is important to remember that the President’s rule is not absolute – he cannot appoint a Fed chief, but merely nominate one. It is up to the Senate to decide whether they accept the nomination or not. So, technically speaking, Powell’s position is not 100% confirmed yet.So, who is Jerome Powell? Unlike the previous Federal Reserve chiefs over the last 40 years, Powell does not have a PhD in Economics, but is instead a lawyer by training. However, he has had a long career within the finance world that includes investment banking, a position in the U.S. Treasury during Bush senior’s presidency, and a post as governor within the Federal Reserve for the last few years. He has been working closely with current head Janet Yellen, so he knows all about the current trend of policy making employed by the Fed. In many ways he seems like the perfect candidate for the job, since he’s already involved and up-to-date with the Fed.In terms of his policy outlook, Powell has been on the same page as the current Fed chief Janet Yellen. That means that while the Federal Reserve in general plans to reduce its investments (after the 2008 crisis the Fed bought trillions of dollars worth of assets in order to boost the economy) and increase interest rates, Powell’s goal would be to do it slowly, gradually. Even though economic data from the United States is coming in consistently positive, the economy is still vulnerable to sudden changes. The Federal Reserve is also struggling with an issue of mixed signals – strong statistics and low unemployment are begging for a rate hike, but low inflation is saying it’s too early. It’s a tricky balance that Yellen has managed to keep with remarkable patience and attention to detail. It is expected that Powell’s approach will be similar.The markets didn’t have a major reaction to the announcement. As evidenced above, Powell is expected to pretty much replace Yellen unnoticeably, with no major changes in policy. He was also rumored to be the top candidate for the job weeks before the announcement, due to his current prominent post within the Federal Reserve. He is also a Republican, which makes him an even more desirable choice for President Trump and a mostly-Republican Senate.There was some space for surprise, in case Trump nominated someone else with a different economic opinion, such as John Taylor. The Stanford economist is known for his much more hawkish stance on monetary policy, and if he had been nominated, it is likely that the dollar would have received a major boost.Since the nomination went on without any major surprises, we can say that in terms of the American dollar, in 2018 we expect things to continue in much the same way as now: slowly, patiently, with a close attention to each report on the American economy and inflation. Meanwhile, an interest rate increase in December, still under Yellen’s guidance, is still expected. 

Results of the conference in SingaporeGood news from our company! On October 21, 2017 Superforex participated in the prestigious international Forex conference ShowFx in Singapore. Our efforts to create the best partnership program have not gone unnoticed. We are returning from Singapore with the “Best Affiliate Program 2017” award by ShowFx. Along with our partners’ success, this award once again shows that we’ve reached our goal.Everyone who decided to become our partner and work with us can benefit from the best conditions for cooperation. We’ve created various such opportunities: Being our Introducing brokerTrader-PartnerWebmasterBloggerExchangerFX Signal ProviderFX Advisor SellerFX Education ProjectInvestment Project If you are confident enough and have the desire to join us - we are always happy to connect!You can find more photos from the Conference here: https://superforex.com/offline 

Oil Moving Towards Balance With new developments in Saudi Arabia, the oil seems to be climbing up.A lot has been going on with the commodity markets lately, so we decided that this week it’s high time we revisited one of the key topics on the financial markets – crude oil.More information see here 

Markets Are in DeclineThe British pound continues to fall.After the announcement by the US Senate on the introduction of a tax reform in 2019, the stock markets have reacted in a slight decrease and stopped the 8-week dollar rally. More information see here  

Oil(CL/WTI): Review & Short-Term Forecast Oil came under pressure due to new forecasts about global demand for crude oil which show balance on the market won't be achieved in the near future amid increasing extraction of shale oil in the USA.More information see here  

Last edited by Superforex (11/15/2017 8:59 am)

USD/SEK: Fundamental Review The uncertain future for the the tax reform in the USA negatively impacted the USD. There is no incentive for further growth.More information see here