US stock indices were a tad firmer this morning following on from yesterday’s mixed session. The main takeaway from Monday’s trade was that the Dow finished a touch lower, and so its run of eight successive positive sessions came to an end. Otherwise, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 continue to consolidate, trading sideways and within spitting distance of their...
Gold dropped sharply this morning, giving back all of Friday’s gains and more. Despite this, gold remains comfortably above $2,300 per ounce. In addition, the MACD on the daily chart suggests that the downside momentum which started to accelerate in mid-April, has begun to flatten out. It’s worth noting that gold has given back a lot of its gains over the last...
Crude prices continued to recover this morning having fallen sharply over the past fortnight. On Wednesday front-month WTI dropped below $77 per barrel to hit its lowest level in two months. There has been a bounce since then, which has taken WTI back up towards $80. The MACD on the daily chart is starting to turn up, suggesting that upside momentum is building...
Earlier today gold was, like US stock indices, continuing to trade in a relatively narrow range. But unlike the indices, it was consolidating at lower levels following a sell-off, rather than at higher levels after a rally. Despite this, gold was managing to hold above $2,300. But there was no immediate indication that momentum, as measured by the MACD, had found...
Crude oil fell relentlessly last week, but managed to post a modest gain on Monday. Prices turned lower once again yesterday, and the sell-off has continued this morning. Front-month WTI has now fallen back below $78 per barrel, a level which acted as resistance back in November, January and February. It’s now apparent that it hasn’t offered any support to prices....
All the major US stock indices were firmer on Tuesday, building on gains from the latter half of last week. Investors were relieved to wave goodbye to April which proved to be an unsettling one in terms of increased volatility. Sentiment soured significantly last month, following an uninterrupted rally since the end of October. But US stock indices have had a...
Gold continues to keep traders on their toes as it fails to provide clear signals over future direction. It put in a solid rally from mid-February to mid-April, but has struggled to find a footing since then. In fact, what looked like an entirely reasonable period of consolidation has turned into something more sinister, at least as far as the bulls are concerned....
There were some wild moves across US stock indices last night as investors responded to the Federal Reserve’s FOMC statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s subsequent press conference. The major indices were in negative territory ahead of the rate announcement, but then bounced sharply after the FOMC left rates unchanged as expected, and on the back of a benign...
Yesterday saw a big ‘risk-off’ move across all the major US stock indices. The biggest falls were seen in the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 and the domestically-focused mid-cap Russell 2000, which ended the day down 2.0% and 2.1% respectively. That was a fitting, if disappointing, end to April for US equities which have struggled to maintain the relentless bullishness...
Gold and silver were sharply lower overnight. While not as violent as last week’s drop, the sell-off has certainly taken the gloss off the positive sentiment which was slowly returning in the latter half of last week. There was some good news early on in that gold traded above $2,300 throughout the morning suggesting that many investors were holding their nerves....
The big news overnight has been the sharp move in the Japanese yen. At the end of last week, following the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) monetary policy meeting, Governor Kazuo Ueda stated that he was quite relaxed about the fall in the yen, as long as it didn’t have a serious impact on the domestic economy or inflation. This came after the USDJPY pushed and held above a...
Asian Pacific indices rallied sharply overnight, although Australia’s ASX 200 moved in the opposite direction on the back of weakness in healthcare and industrials. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its key Policy Rate unchanged as expected. But there was some bemusement that BoJ officials seemed relatively unconcerned at the multi-decade weakness of the Japanese yen....
This week, precious metals had their first serious test of the potential downside since this leg of the rally began in mid-February. Gold lost over $100, or around 5%, from last Friday’s high to the low on Tuesday. It now appears to be stabilising back above $2,300. Silver lost close to 8% between the same levels, but it too managed to steady itself yesterday and,...
US stock indices continued their fightback yesterday. All the majors ended in positive territory with the strongest gains posted by the mid-cap Russell 2000, followed by the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100. Stock index futures rallied further overnight but have since pulled back from their highs. Tesla reported after last night’s close. The stock soared 15% despite missing...
Brent and WTI were both lower this morning, giving back much of yesterday’s gains. Prices have recovered a touch this afternoon, yet both contracts appear to be consolidating again, following last week’s sell-off which itself followed a lengthy period of sideways movement. But whereas the latter occurred around significant resistance areas of $85 per barrel for...
Gold and silver were sharply lower first thing this morning, and they extended their losses during the afternoon. It may sound like a bit of a cop-out in terms of an explanation, but both metals were well overdue a significant pull-back. Gold in particular, has rallied relentlessly since mid-February with little in the way of a pause. Now traders face the same...
Overnight, crude oil surged higher as news broke of explosions around an airfield in Isfahan in Iran. Israel is widely considered responsible, but has yet to comment. The limited strike is thought to be the Israeli response to Iran’s direct attack on the country last weekend. Iran has played down news of the strike, and it currently feels as if this won’t be the...
US stock index futures were firmer in early trade this morning. It remains to be seen if history repeats the market action from Wednesday and Monday, when early gains evaporated as the sessions progressed. Yesterday’s price action saw all the US majors rally early on, before reversing sharply later in the day. Tech stocks were hardest hit. NVIDIA ended the day...
