This week the economic focus shifted to several key events:
🟢 Release of the updated British budget.
🟢 Geopolitical tensions related to the conflict situation between Russia and Poland.
🟢 OPEC said that the organization is ready to intervene for the benefit of oil markets.
Let's take a closer look at how these events were able to leave a mark on the financial markets ⚡
US Midterm Elections Results: What to Expect in the Stock Markets?
November 8th, 2022, was the day of the US Midterms.
Although it was expected that the Republicans would snatch House seats in a ‘red wave’, it was a lot more of a close call. Nonetheless, they flipped enough seats and won the majority for the House of Representatives. Democrats retained control of the Senate.
But what does all of this mean for the financial markets?
Amazon ($AMZN) is reportedly planning to lay off around 10,000 workers — the stocks react with a decline
Amazon announced in a blog post its plans to lay off 10,000 employees, representing 3% of its white-collar professionals in corporate and technology roles. The cuts will primarily focus on money-draining units, such as Amazon voice-assistant Alexa and ebook-reader Kindle.
In addition to the layoffs announced Wednesday by Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, there are numerous other ways that the online retailer and other tech companies lighten their headcount.
As a result, shares of Amazon closed down about 2% on Monday, Nov. 14.
So, such news of a layoff could have a negative impact on the stock price.
OPEC Secretary said that the organisation is ready to intervene for the benefit of oil markets
In early October, OPEC+ announced plans to reduce oil production by 2 mb/d in November 2022.
Such statements signal the organisation's intention to maintain a moderate volume of production to stabilise oil prices. The next meeting of OPEC+ will take place on December 4, where a decision on another reduction in oil production due to “decreasing demand” may be taken.
This could cause increased volatility primarily for crude oil.
GBPUSD clings to gains near 1.1900 amid softer USD, lacks bullish conviction
The $GBPUSD pair sticks to its modest intraday gains and is currently placed around the 1.1900 round-figure mark.
As investors look past a rather unimpressive UK government £55 billion fiscal plan, as outlined in the Autumn budget, a combination of factors assists the $GBPUSD pair to regain positive traction on the last day of the week. Expectations that the Bank of England will continue raising rates to combat stubbornly high inflation act as a tailwind for the British Pound.
Apart from this, the better-than-expected monthly UK Retail Sales data offers some support to spot prices amid subdued US Dollar price action.
What's up next week?
Check out the real-time NAGA Economic Calendar, which covers financial events and indicators from all over the world!
This concludes our weekly recap.
Have a great weekend and see you next week!
