EU leaders meet in the White House – Market wrap for the North American session - August 18

[Redator]

Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for August 18

The Trump-Zelenskyy meeting just concluded at around 15:00 ET, leaving place to the ongoing meeting between Trump and a flurry of EU leaders.

There has been some doubts relating to some of the demands made by Putin on the meeting that happened past Friday in Anchorage, including a retract of Ukraine from a NATO membership and an official concession of Crimea – Thing deemed "impossible by the Ukrainian President when appearing on Fox.

Sentiment degraded a bit to start the day, but the ongoing talks are leaving the market undecided as participants await more news.

For that aspect, equities finish the day close to unchanged, forex movement is fairly thin and Cryptos, which were selling off in the morning, mean-reverted back a little (although still finish the session down.)

Energy commodities like oil on the other hand, have broken out as a potential end to the ongoing war would imply a much thinner supply.

The rest is for Markets to see if the war really comes to an end or not.

A ceasefire in the Middle East is also potentially in the building, but will need Israeli confirmation – The Qatari-Egypt proposal has been accepted by Hamas.

In the waiting of further headlines, it seems the Market is on edge – expect volatility this week with many different scenarios possible.

Read More: US Oil breaks out as bearish catalysts fade

Cross-Asset Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, August 18, 2025 – Source: TradingView

Oil is the one outstanding performer of today's session, starting down about 1.5% before finishing up 1%.

Cryptos are also mean-reverting higher with sentiment not degrading further.

Movement has beenm relatively muted all around asset classes however.

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, August 18 – Source: OANDA Labs

The US Dollar started the day on a high note, with the DXY still consolidating around the 98.00 handle.

The relative strength for the USD also dragged the Loonie higher, particularly with the support of decent performance from Oil.

The Euro, Pound and JPY are the biggest laggers of the session in some mean-reversion flows.

Forex movement has still been relatively subdued today.

A look at Economic data releasing in tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

The overnight session has a few data points for APAC currency traders, including the New Zealand PPI (18:45 ET) and the Australian Consumer Confidence.

Tomorrow's session is expected to be a bit more movemented – The NA session begins with Canadian Inflation at 8:30 A.M. with a consensus at 0.4% m/m for both the headline and core.

The US data will be a tid bit lighter with Housing numbers also at 8:30, still, expect headlines from the Trump-EU meeting.

Also, tomorrow night will see the release of the RBNZ Rate Decision, where a 25 bps cut is 97% priced in. The decision will be taken at 22:00 in tomorrow's evening session.

Safe Trades!

Opinions are the authors'; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. The provided publication is for informational and educational purposes only.
If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please refer to the MarketPulse Terms of Use.
Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets.
© 2025 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.