It has been a feature, or perhaps more correctly a worry, of the US equity market that post-Covid gains have been driven by a small selection of tech stocks. Less than a month ago, the five largest corporations by market capitalisation, accounted for over 20% of the value of the S&P 500. Understandably, this concentration of risk caused many analysts to express...
Just when the bulls thought that crude may have found some support, the sellers came out and smashed their hopes. While crude was a touch firmer in early trade, the gains were coming from a lower base. Yesterday, front-month WTI appeared to find some support around $77.50, having sliced below $80 at the end of last week. But it didn’t take too much effort for the...
US stock index futures were mixed in early trade this morning. This followed a positive session across all the majors yesterday with strong gains for both the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 (+1.6%) and the mid-cap, domestically-focused Russell 2000 (+1.7%). Investors will be relieved by the turnaround in fortunes following a general sell-off in the latter half of last...
On Friday morning the oil price looked finely balanced. Front-month WTI had managed to hold support around $80. But it had failed to put sufficient clear water between this level and its first major upside target of $82 per barrel. That proved to be fatal for traders looking for an immediate resumption of the bull run from early June. Crude fell back sharply on...
Gold ran head-first into a brick wall overnight and is down sharply today. This follows a couple of indifferent sessions which, nevertheless, appeared to offer some consolidation at higher levels following Tuesday’s sharp rally. Back then, gold surged past its old record high of $2,450 from May this year, going on to top $2,480. But, just as we saw in April, May...
Crude oil flew higher yesterday, after spending the morning testing significant support. Front-month WTI dropped below $80 per barrel on Tuesday, setting the market up for a face-off between the bulls and bears. It proved to be quite a tussle, with the winner likely to set the tone and near-term direction. In the end, the bulls managed to spark a significant rally...
There’s been a sharp sell-off in tech stocks today which saw the NASDAQ 100 drop over 2% soon after the open. Generative AI darlings NVIDIA and Super Micro Computers were both down over 5%, while there were also big losses for Meta, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla. Investors reacted to reports that the Biden administration was preparing further trade restrictions...
Gold was firmer again this morning, building on yesterday’s gains. It then dropped sharply as the New York futures exchange opened, before steadying just above $2,430. It proceeded to shoot higher, taking out its all-time intra-day high of $2,450 from two months ago. This is a situation which must be offering up some comfort to the bulls. Gold has made steady...
Gold was a touch weaker in early trade this morning, but still managed to hold above $2,400. Silver was also on the backfoot first thing. But both metals rallied off their lows as the trading session progressed. Gold, and to a lesser extent silver, got a boost from last week’s unexpected improvement in US inflation, as measured by CPI. Gold has managed to hold on...
US stock indices were rallying sharply into the weekend. This followed yesterday’s extraordinary session which saw large losses for tech stocks, but a huge shift into domestically focused mid-caps. This change in fortunes was borne out by the closing numbers which saw the NASDAQ 100 end 2% lower, while the Russell 2000 jumped 3.6%. The tech-led sell-off came just...
Front-month WTI fell back close to $80 per barrel yesterday before it bounced sharply. This move should be encouraging for bullish investors as it suggests that oil prices may have found a good level of support. If it continues to hold, and if prices now consolidate between $80 and $81, then the bulls could have a launchpad for further gains. This assumes that the...
Gold was a touch firmer in early trade this morning, building on yesterday’s gains, and clawing back a proportion of Monday’s losses. It has been a feature of the gold market since April that incremental gains made over many days, or even weeks, get wiped out in a single session. This has done a fair amount of damage to the bullish sentiment that had been building...
Gold had a good day yesterday, and managed not only to hold on to early gains, but build on them as the session progressed. It was a touch lower this morning, but still trading above $2,350, taking it back up to levels last seen a fortnight ago. It’s a similar story for silver which also had a strong session on Wednesday. It also pulled back this morning, but the...
Crude oil was down yesterday, but back up this morning. Prices continue to consolidate in a relatively narrow range. This follows the sharp rally which began in early June, just after the sell-off in the aftermath of the OPEC/OPEC+ meetings at the beginning of the month. Prices have gone sideways over the past ten days, holding roughly in a $2 trading range. As...
US stock index futures were all modestly higher in early trade, but began to turn lower as the session progressed. Yesterday saw another mixed session yesterday which saw gains for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ, and small losses for the Dow and Russell 2000. This is entirely consistent with the sharp recovery in NVIDIA, a constituent of both the NASDAQ and S&P....
In early trade this morning, gold and silver continued to take tentative steps upward following Friday’s nasty sell-off. Last week’s move really pulled the rug from under the bulls. They had been slowly rebuilding their confidence after an even nastier sell-off on 7th June. But the steady grind higher which followed the first slump evaporated in a single session....
It’s been a relatively quiet start to the week with US stock indices little-changed in early trade. There was a slight positive bias across most of the majors, although the tech-heavy NASDAQ was showing signs of weakness. Market darling NVIDIA was down again, with further evidence of additional profit-taking. Last Thursday the chip maker at the vanguard of...
Brent and WTI crude were little-changed this morning. Both contracts are now trading up at levels last seen at the end of April. This contrasts with where oil prices were just over a fortnight ago when both Brent and WTI were trading at four month lows, following the OPEC/OPEC+ meetings. Since then, Brent and WTI have added 10.6% and 11.6% respectively. Yesterday,...
