Evening Market Recap: 17 Sep 2026

Thursday's session arrived with two unresolved questions from Wednesday's Fed hike: whether the pipeline restoration signals were credible enough to break WTI through its structural support, and whether the Bank of England would shift its vote. Both questions received definitive answers before the New York close. Saudi Arabia confirmed it aims to restore roughly half its East-West pipeline capacity within days and full operations within six weeks - a harder operational commitment than the political assurance that moved oil yesterday, and enough to push WTI below $100 intraday for the first time this week. The BOE held at 3.75% by an identical 6-3 vote to July, with the same three dissenters, removing any premium sterling had been carrying into noon. EUR/USD broke below 1.1490, USD/JPY recovered to 155.86 erasing the week's short gains entirely, and gold held near $4,307, finding support from Treasury yields pulling back from their 19-year high. The single most important level of the day was $100 in WTI - defined as the stop in this briefing series for two consecutive sessions and eventually breached in intraday trade as the pipeline story hardened. Tomorrow's BOJ decision is now the only event with the power to set a new directional tone. The full evening recap carries a complete reassessment of every position across all eight instruments, including an honest review of which morning calls held and which were stopped, along with specific entry, stop, and target guidance for the BOJ event. Subscribers to Markets Mastered received that briefing in full - if you are reading the short version, the detail that matters most for tomorrow's open is behind the paywall.