The markets were quiet today on Tuesday as a majority of countries around the world celebrating Labour Day "over 100 countries". However, investor optimism has been dominated despite holidays due to news that the US has extended its delay in the implementation of steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU, Canada and Mexico for another month. The dollar remains a key outperformer across the forex majors and resumed its recovery path yesterday.
This comes as the Reserve Bank of Australia announced this morning that interest rates will remain unchanged at 1.5%, but the Australian dollar has not seen drastic movements as the monetary policy statement was expected by the markets.
On the other side, the growth of the manufacturing sector in UK slowed in April, raising concerns about slowing economic growth in the coming period. PMI fell from 55.1 to 53.9 points, below expectations of 54.8 points, stabilizing near the lowest level in 17 months. A major obstacle to manufacturing growth was business confidence among manufacturers has fallen to its weakest level in five months, with firms citing concerns about Brexit and possible future trade barriers.
