USD RUB

Today brought a modicum of good news for energy-strapped European nations: Russia has offered to increase natural gas exports to the continent, potentially to record highs...

After 1) a first presidential debate in which Hillary Clinton was seen to have secured a major win over Donald Trump, 2) a vice-presidential debate where the Republican ticket gained back some ground with its supporters, 3) a scandalous revelation regarding a lewd tape of Trump’s self-professed “locker room talk” years ago, 4) a second presidential debate with mixed results for both Clinton and Trump, 5) a withdrawal of support for Trump by some prominent Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, and 6) a release of additional hacked Clinton emails that could further damage the Democratic ticket, Clinton appears by most accounts to be leading the race with an increasingly wider margin.

Central banks will be traders’ central focus in the G10 this week, with monetary policy “decisions” out of the Federal Reserve, Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Bank of Japan, but there will also be some potentially important central bank meetings in the emerging world as well. While not too many readers are trading the currencies of Hungary, Nigeria, Ukraine or Israel (each of which features a central bank meeting this week), there will be central bank updates from more widely-followed nations like Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.

When most FX traders think of the implications of oil prices, they think of the impact on the Canadian dollar, or if they’re of a more Northern European persuasion, perhaps the Norwegian krone. Predictably, both of those currencies have been punished amidst the ongoing collapse in oil prices, but the Russian ruble has suffered the most grievous wounds.