Stocks have been smashed since last Thursday’s late-session sell-off began as there’s been growing expectations for a 75 basis point hike in July.

It’s been a busy 24 hours across global markets and the big driver remains on the horizon for next Wednesday with the FOMC.

The US Dollar has seen strength starting to come back after a three-week pullback, and tomorrow’s CPI and next week’s FOMC will keep this theme center-stage.

Stocks have shown extremely high levels of volatility so far this year but with an FOMC rate decision just a week away, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 have built into box formations.

Yen weakness has come back in a very big way and USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY have all set fresh multi-year highs overnight.

Gold prices have recovered quite a bit since the May low, but that recovery has taken on the form of a rising wedge moving right up to a key level of resistance.

It was a positive NFP report but the item on everyone’s mind is the FOMC rate decision, with the Fed moving into a ‘blackout period’ after this weekend.

The S&P 500 put in a long-legged doji for the month of May and the focus shifts back to the Fed and tomorrow’s Non-farm Payrolls report.

The US Dollar just printed its first bearish monthly bar of 2022 trade. Non-farm Payrolls is released on Friday and the Fed is waiting in the wings for their rate decision in two weeks.

The US Dollar has set a fresh 19-year high, helped along by another breakdown in EUR/USD. USD/JPY also turned and that remains of interest.