Summary:
- Brent Oil has rallied to its highest level of the year
- Bitcoin surges as CBOE futures go live
- Gold back near last week’s low ahead of FOMC
- Quiet start to the week for US stocks
- DE30 technical overview
- NOK drops on weak CPI; Norges Bank meeting later this week
Reports of the Forties pipeline being shut for a matter of weeks have caused a bid in Brent Oil this afternoon with the market rallying by almost 2% and breaching its recent highs. The market has been consolidating for several weeks after posting a 2-and-a-half year high of 64.65 but today the price broke above this level. However, it should be noted that speculative net long positions remain close to their highest levels of the year and this could cap further gains.
A rush from the US exchanges to start offering Bitcoin futures was seen as a major step in the currency adoption that was supposed to stabilize the market and make it more mature. The first trading day brought just the opposite. Trading was halted twice as the “limit-up” price was traded and a large divergence has appeared between the cash and futures price.
Following three stormy quarters on the gold market that have led prices towards long-term lows it looks like prices have entered a consolidation at the beginning of the present quarter. Although prices didn’t tumble after the release of unfavourable demand-supply report concerning the gold market in the third quarter, a combination of two factors may have led to a situation where gold again began respecting market fundamentals.
The US500 has edged higher so far today and is trading back near its record peak of 2665. Last Monday saw the market reopen higher after the positive tax news from the US but the gap higher was swiftly closed and by Wednesday morning the market was off by around 45 points.
The DE30 has also experienced a fairly subdued days trade. A technical overview of this market can be found here.
The Scandinavian currencies have had tough time of late as both NOK and SEK have plunged due to real estate concerns. While inflation still hovers close to the Riksbank’s target, this is not the case when it comes to the Norwegian economy and therefore SEK could outperform its peer in the nearest future. Today we got another sign of such a trend as a set of inflation data from Norway missed forecasts sending the NOK vastly lower.