At the end of last week, Brent and WTI crude hit highs last seen around two months ago. Earlier in the week, both contracts broke above resistance levels of $80 and $75 respectively. These gains came after news of two attacks by Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure. The first target was the Russian Ust-Luga oil terminal and the second was a Russian oil...
There’s a bit of life coming back into precious metals with both gold and silver firmer in early trade on Thursday. The weaker dollar is providing a bit of a catalyst for the upside move, although it’s worth noting how the Dollar Index bounced sharply yesterday afternoon, and it remains in consolidation-mode rather than indicating the start of a turn lower. Silver...
Oil prices were modestly lower this morning, and continued to pull back from the highs hit on Monday. Crude continues to trade within a relatively narrow range, mainly between $70 and $75 for front-month WTI (the USO ETF as above), and has yet to find a catalyst to help it break out significantly in either direction. Prices did gap higher this afternoon following...
The three major US stock indices eked out modest gains yesterday to mark fresh record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended above 38,000 for the first time ever. But the best performance came from the Russell 2000 which closed up 2.0%. This is the US’s ‘mid cap’ index. It is a broad-based look at smaller US companies covering a wide range of businesses...
Crude was little-changed in this morning’s trade. Oil prices continue to hold within a relatively tight range which has established itself since the beginning of this year. The front-month WTI contract has failed to break convincingly above $75 per barrel, or below $70, while front-month Brent has mainly held between $80 and $75 per barrel. Chart-wise, there’s a...
US stock indices are building on yesterday’s tech-driven gains today. Last night, the NASDAQ 100 closed up 1.4% helped by a 3.3% jump in Apple’s stock price, following an upgrade from Bank of America (BoA). Apple has struggled recently after it hit a record high just a tad below $200 in mid-December. It fell close to 10% over the next three weeks, so this vote of...
There’s a widely held belief that gold is inversely correlated to the US dollar. The thinking goes that the stronger the dollar, the more expensive it is for non-dollar holders to buy dollar-denominated commodities such as gold. In addition, if US interest rates/bond yields are rising relative to other countries (currencies) the dollar will also go up as it...
US Stock indices are all weaker today compounding yesterday’s losses. Investors continue to cut back their long side exposure as they reassess the possible timing of rate cuts through 2024. The Federal Reserve has repeatedly warned market participants to temper their expectations for looser monetary policy, warning that inflation may not yet be beaten and citing...
Gold and silver have come under a renewed round of selling pressure today, principally on the back of dollar strength. There’s been a sell-off on bonds following yesterday’s Martin Luther King holiday with the yield on the US 10-year Treasury note back above 4.0%. Rising yields imply that the market feels that rates could stay higher for longer and this increases...
Many US exchanges are closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day. This means that there’s no trade in individual stocks, although futures markets are open, but closing early. Consequently, we can expect trading volumes to be low and liquidity light which sometimes results in jumpy price moves. We had a mixed close on Friday with the Dow lower thanks to...
Gold and silver have been under constant selling pressure since the end of last year. Yesterday, gold fell to its lowest level since mid-December, and came close to testing the upper end of support around $2,010. Silver fell below $22.50 to hit its lowest level since mid-November. These sell-offs have coincided with a counter-trend rally in the dollar. Both metals...
Ahead of the CPI update for December, US stock indices inched higher, building on Wednesday’s gains. The S&P 500 was testing resistance around the 4,800 area which is within spitting distance of its record intra-day high of 4,818, hit at the beginning of January 2022. If it can top this level, then it will join the Dow and the NASDAQ 100 in making fresh record...
With little in the way of economic data, and ahead of key inflation numbers and the start of the fourth quarter earnings season, the path of least resistance for US stock indices appears to be ‘up’. While the US majors ended yesterday’s session with modest losses, they certainly closed well off their lows. Given the sharp rally on Monday, it feels as if the bears...
Gold was a tad firmer this morning while silver was effectively unchanged. This is despite a rally in the US dollar which took back a chunk of yesterday’s losses. The dollar appears to have found a floor and has rallied sharply since Christmas. This is something of a turnaround given that the Dollar Index lost 6% between early October and the end of December. The...
Oil prices dropped sharply this morning, and prices dropped further in the afternoon. As we approached the European close, the front-month WTI contract was down around 4% currently. At the end of last week, Reuters reported that OPEC production rose in December, cancelling out existing output cuts chiefly from Saudi Arabia and Russia. The news came as additional...
US stock indices were drifting lower in early trade today, adding to losses from yesterday. They took another lurch lower following the release of the latest Non-Farm Payroll update.
December payrolls came in at 216,000 well above the 170,000 consensus expectation. In addition, Average Hourly Earnings also came in above forecast. This raised concerns that the...
Gold was steadier in early trade this morning following yesterday’s sharp sell-off. This marked the fourth consecutive negative session for gold. This has helped to dampen the bullish sentiment which had built steadily over the last quarter of 2023. Despite this, gold continues to trade above the key area of support between $2,000 and $2,010. If it can manage to...
A batch of tech stocks got hammered yesterday sending the NASDAQ 100 down 1.6% on the first trading day of 2024. Some of the brightest names responsible for pushing the market higher last year hit a brick wall. Apple lost close to 4% on a Barclays downgrade, while AMD fell 6% and Nvidia ended the session 2.7% lower. Intel also came under selling pressure and was...
