Crude oil suddenly became a newsworthy talking point yesterday as Brent fell below $70 per barrel to trade at its lowest level since December 2021. Front-month WTI also fell again, taking it back to levels last seen in May 2023. No one is willing to stand underneath this torrent of selling, as significant buyers continue to stand aside, even after last week’s...
Gold broke above $2,500 in mid-August and has been trading either side of this level ever since. On one hand, this looks quite constructive from a bullish standpoint as the to-and-fro on the daily chart suggests a period of consolidation. This is entirely reasonable given the run-up from $2,300 at the end of June. It’s also encouraging that gold hasn’t yet...
Crude oil recorded heavy falls last week, posting its biggest weekly drop in close to a year. WTI lost 8% while Brent ended 10% lower. Front-month WTI easily took out its December low, as it dropped under $64 to record its lowest level since early May 2023. It would be easy to put the blame on Friday’s weaker-than-expected Non-Farm Payroll report. But this seems...
Yesterday’s gold performance was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday’s. It flirted with $2,500 but repeatedly came under selling pressure, taking it down towards $2,470. Gold managed to find its footing late afternoon, and built on these gains overnight. This provided a platform for prices to take off to the upside earlier this morning, pushing back above $2,500 and...
US stock indices marked the end of summer and the first full trading session of September by closing sharply lower yesterday. All the majors came under sustained selling pressure, with the biggest losses suffered by tech. The NASDAQ 100 fell 3.3%, closely followed by mid-caps, with the Russell 2000 shedding 3.1%. Market darling NVIDIA slumped 9.5%, taking its...
Earlier this morning, US stock index futures were building on yesterday’s impressive, and broad-based gains. On Thursday investors rushed in to hoover up equities with the mid-cap Russell 2000 leading the way to finish 2.5% higher. Tech wasn’t far behind, with the NASDAQ adding 2.3%. The Dow and the S&P 500 gained 1.4% and 1.6% respectively. The gains came on the...
Oil prices were firmer in early trade this morning. But these gains have done little to recoup losses from the pullback since Tuesday. Front-month WTI ran straight into a band of resistance between $78 and $80. Prices fell back sharply from here, although they look as if there’s some support around $76. But whether oil has found a solid base from which it can have...
This morning’s move in gold looked constructive from a bullish perspective, although prices dipped soon after today’s CPI release which showed a continued decline in inflation. It now looks as if we’ll see a test of support at $2,450. Yesterday saw a shallow pullback, which followed on from Monday’s sharp gains. Despite this, gold remains tantalisingly close to...
Yesterday’s performance across US stock indices amounted to a ‘big, fat nothingburger’ to use a technical expression from our Wall Street colleagues. There was a dearth of fresh information to process, while there’s a large pile of important economic updates to consider throughout the rest of the week. This starts today with July Producer Prices (PPI), followed by...
Gold and silver made significant gains this morning in an otherwise featureless trading session. Both have built on last week’s late recovery. As with other risk assets, gold and silver shot higher on Thursday following the release of a better-than-expected weekly Unemployment Claims number. This helped them to make back losses from earlier in the week following...
Precious metals had a solid session yesterday. Gold prices began to push steadily higher during Asian Pacific trading, setting the base for a surge back above $2,400 mid-morning. It has managed to build on, and hold, these gains this morning. The bulls will be hoping that there won’t be another sudden price plunge. These are now regular monthly occurrences which...
First things first, front-month WTI has pushed back over, and held above, mild resistance at $74 and so has invalidated the potential ‘head and shoulders’ pattern on the hourly chart from yesterday. At the same time, crude has managed to rally off Monday’s multi-month low and the price action since then has helped to provide an uptick on the daily MACD. But...
Gold and silver got caught up in the sell-off as investors rushed to slash their exposure to all risk assets. The carnage that began just under a week ago, and accelerated into Monday, triggered a cascade of selling across all financial markets – except bonds. This phenomenon is often met with surprise by market participants who are so used to seeing precious...
Yesterday, front-month WTI fell to its lowest level since mid-January. It broke under the lows seen in early June, from where the last decent rally took place, and continues to close in on its December low point, around $68. There was a strong bounce in the afternoon which added $2.50 to the price. But both Brent and WTI are little-changed today. Fundamentally,...
The stock market sell-off in the latter part of last week accelerated overnight. A collapse in Japan’s Nikkei contributed to steep falls across all US stock index futures. Once again, the tech sector is leading the way down, just as it led the march up. But there is no evidence that investors are rotating out of tech and into US mid-caps anymore. This morning both...
