Week of 6 to 10 July 2026·Published
Week in Brief
XM widened its EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY spreads by 80 to 92 percent starting Tuesday and held the wider quotes through Friday, the single largest broker move of the week. Every other broker on those three pairs held flat all five days. Blackbull Markets was the cheapest broker across the board, taking the tightest spread on 13 of 25 instrument-days tracked.
Spread Movements by Instrument
EUR/USD
Widened- Week range
- 0.74 to 1.02 pips average across brokers
- Cheapest
- Pepperstone at 0.1 pips (all five days)
- Notable
- XM jumped from 1.1 pips Monday to 2.0 pips Tuesday and stayed there through Friday, an 82 percent move. Every other broker on this pair (IG, Oanda, Pepperstone, Saxo) was unchanged all week.
GBP/USD
Widened- Week range
- 0.46 to 1.13 pips average across brokers
- Cheapest
- Blackbull Markets at 0.1 pips (all five days)
- Notable
- XM widened from 1.3 pips Monday to 2.4 pips Wednesday and held there, an 85 percent move, the same pattern seen on EUR/USD and USD/JPY.
USD/JPY
Widened- Week range
- 0.75 to 1.22 pips average across brokers
- Cheapest
- Blackbull Markets at 0.1 pips (four of five days)
- Notable
- XM widened from 1.3 pips Monday to 2.5 pips Tuesday and held there through Friday, a 92 percent move, the largest single-broker shift of the week on any instrument.
XAU/USD
Stable- Week range
- 8.73 to 11.47 USD average across brokers
- Cheapest
- Blackbull Markets at 0.12 USD (all five days)
- Notable
- The three brokers that reported all five days (IG at 0.3, Saxo at 34, Blackbull at 0.12) did not move a single day. The average swing shown above is entirely due to AvaTrade appearing Tuesday and Wednesday only, not a real price change.
US500
Stable- Week range
- 0.68 to 0.73 pts average across brokers
- Cheapest
- IG World at 0.4 pts (all five days)
- Notable
- All four reporting brokers (IG, Blackbull, EasyMarkets, Swissquote) held within a narrow band all week. Swissquote was the constant widest quote at 1.1 pts.
WTI/USD
Tightened- Week range
- 0.056 to 0.091 pts among the two brokers reporting all five days
- Cheapest
- Swissquote at 0.052 pts (Tuesday and Friday)
- Notable
- Blackbull Markets tightened from 0.13 pts Tuesday to 0.06 pts by Thursday, a 54 percent move, while Swissquote stayed flat around 0.05 to 0.06 pts all week.
GER40
Stable among consistent reporters- Week range
- 1.4 to 6.7 pts (two to three brokers reporting)
- Cheapest
- IG World at 1.4 pts (all five days)
- Notable
- Blackbull Markets began reporting this pair Wednesday and Friday at 6.7 pts, the widest quote seen on GER40 this week. IG and EasyMarkets World were unchanged all five days.
NAS100
Widened slightly- Week range
- 1.0 to 3.2 pts (one to two brokers reporting)
- Cheapest
- Blackbull Markets at 1.0 pts (Monday and Tuesday)
- Notable
- Swissquote ran 2.2, 2.7, 2.45, 3.2, 2.7 pts Monday to Friday. Blackbull Markets did not report Thursday.
BTC/USD
Stable- Week range
- 24.92 to 25.25 USD among brokers reporting
- Cheapest
- EasyMarkets World at 25.00 USD (all five days, unchanged)
- Notable
- AvaTrade drifted from 25.22 to 24.92 USD through Thursday, then stopped reporting entirely Friday. That dropout is a coverage gap, not a price move.
Broker Spotlight
Blackbull Markets held the tightest or joint-tightest spread on GBP/USD, USD/JPY, XAU/USD and WTI/USD, and was the cheapest broker overall on 13 of 25 instrument-days tracked this week. XM was the clear widest-quote outlier: it repriced EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY sharply higher mid-week and was the most expensive broker on those three pairs for four of five days.
Market Context
- ECB minutes released this week showed openness to a further rate hike, with markets pricing a possible 25bp move in September on cooling Eurozone inflation. EUR/USD spreads among IG, Oanda, Pepperstone and Saxo stayed completely flat through the news.
- Renewed Middle East tensions lifted oil prices mid-week on supply concerns, while gold traded down roughly 1.6 percent on the week as Fed rate-hike expectations dominated. XAU/USD spreads at the three consistently-reporting brokers did not move despite both crosscurrents.
- Federal Reserve commentary continued to signal no near-term hikes, consistent with the flat US500 spreads held by IG, Blackbull, EasyMarkets and Swissquote all week.
- The RBA took a hawkish stance mid-week, but no equivalent reaction showed up in USD/JPY spreads outside of XM's isolated, broker-specific repricing.
To Watch Next Week
- 14 July — US CPI — instruments to watch: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, US500
- 15 July — US PPI, Bank of Canada rate decision, China Q2 GDP — instruments to watch: USD/JPY, US500
- 16 July — US Retail Sales — instruments to watch: US500, NAS100