A big week ahead, with central banks set to dominate headlines.

The EURUSD was rather flat on Friday after opening at $1.10634. The pair dipped to a low of $1.10540 early in the day before climbing to a high of $1.11092 mid-session. The euro stayed near those levels for a few hours before falling back slightly. It is now trading at $1.10828. The GBPUSD took off on Friday, making some strong gains after a slow start. The pair opened at $1.23301 and dipped to an opening-hour low of $1.23254. It remained steady in early trading before surging mid-session before peaking at $1.25045. It is not far off those highs, currently trading at $1.24979.

The Dow made some small gains on Friday but has opened much lower this morning. The Dow began the day at a low of 27,179.51 and slowly climbed throughout the first half of the day, hitting highs of 27,308.19 mid-session. The Dow fell away after that, closing at 27,205.55. It has opened much lower this morning and is now trading at 27,071.42. The Dax made some modest gains on Friday after opening at 12,425.39. The German index dipped to lows of 12,406.12 early before bouncing back and climbing to highs of 12,495.19 it retreated from those highs late in the day, closing at 12,453.00. However, it has opened much lower today and is struggling at 12,326.65.

Oil moved in a big way this morning, opening around $7 higher than Friday’s close. Oil closed at 54.807 and opened Monday at 61.513 (or around 15% higher) due to a drone strike on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which cut production output in half. Saudi Arabia has not given a timeline on how long it will take for these facilities to become operational again.

The week ahead will be dominated by central bank meetings, with the US Fed Reserve, BoE, BoJ and SNB all holding meetings, while the RBA will be releasing minutes from its previous meeting. Data published today and the most significant this week includes:

Today – China Industrial Production, Fixed Asset Investment, Retail Sales and Unemployment Rate, Canadian Foreign Securities Purchases, US Empire State Manufacturing Index

Tuesday – RBA Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes

Wednesday – UK CPI, Canadian CPI

Thursday – US Federal Funds Rate, FOMC Statement, Economic Projections and Press Conference, BoE Official Bank Rate, Monetary Policy Summary and Asset Purchase Facility, BoJ Policy Rate & Press Conference, SNB Policy Rate & Monetary Policy Assessment, UK Retail Sales, US Philly Fed Manufacturing Index and Crude Oil Inventories, Australian Employment Change and Unemployment Rate, NZ GDP

Friday – Canadian Retail & Core Retail Sales

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