Bland Market At The Beginning Of The Week, Investors Get Ready To 'Fight'!

<p>&nbsp;Investors took a cautious approach at the opening of trading earlier this week as they await central bank policy meetings and key economic data to be published throughout the week.</p><p><br /></p><p>Market sentiment is considered to have slightly recovered, seeing the stock index record gains on Wall Street yesterday, in addition to the US dollar currency, which exhibited a gloomy performance at the beginning of the week.</p><p><br /></p><p>The dollar index fell to 105.70 points while the 10-year Treasury yield of the United States (US) showed no significant movement hovering around 4.90%.</p><p><br /></p><p>The results of the FOMC meeting will be the main focus this week with expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will keep interest rates unchanged at 5.50%.</p><p><br /></p><p>The debate now is how long the Fed will keep interest rates high before moving into a phase of monetary policy easing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Today's market focus will be on the central bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting where interest rates will continue to be expected to remain at -0.10%.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Investors are waiting for indications from the central bank regarding intervention measures when the value of the Yen reached the level of ¥150.00 last week.</p><p><br /></p><p>Continuing the trading earlier this week, the Yen returned to strength when the price was seen to reach ¥148.80 against the US dollar in the New York session.</p><p><br /></p><p>The situation has also been driven by the depreciation of the US dollar where other major currencies are also seen to be taking advantage of the opportunity to increase on Monday trading yesterday.</p><p><br /></p><p>The development of the commodity market, the price of crude oil fell even lower yesterday as concerns were still focused on the protracted Hamas-Israeli war.</p><p><br /></p><p>US WTI crude fell to $81.50 a barrel, while Brent oil fell to $85.80 a barrel.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gold prices, on the other hand, traded slowly at the start of the week around the $2,000 level as investors watched for any fresh indications of further price movement.</p>