Summary:
- More gains seen in the commodity space
- Technical overview for Gold
- US stocks pullback
- USDJPY rises towards key level
- Bitconi whales disrupt price
There’s been further gains seen in the commodity space today with Gold hitting a 3-and-a-half-year high and the industrial metals moving above Wednesday’s highs – they have since fallen back a little however. Nickel has been having an incredible run of late and we focus on the metal and the reasons behind its incredible run-up here.
Another commodity that has been showing some good moves is Gold and a technical overview of the market can be found here.
The US500 has pulled back a little today as the recent winning streak for US stocks has come under threat. Whilst the declines are fairly small and measured, the market has dipped back below the 2700 level after declining around 20 ticks from its recent highs of 2718. The index has enjoyed a strong run higher of late after hitting a low near the start of the month at 2552.
The last fortnight has been a pretty quiet one for major FX pairs with a lot of crosses remaining in a fairly narrow range. The USDJPY is a good example of this, with the key swing level around 107.80 proving stubborn resistance but any dips away from there being bought back. The cross has been moving higher today after a better than expected Philly Fed number and there could be another retest shortly.
The UK retail sales report did not dispel doubts with regard to an expected rate hike in May offering more input for the Bank of England to digest before it decides to change monetary policy settings next month. As a result, the pound weakened to some extent but it has subsequently recovered and trades higher on the day at the European close.
The past days on Bitcoin were remarkably hectic which was reflected by price movements coming out of the blue. Some blame big Bitcoin holders known as ’whales’ which throughout selling or buying notable amounts of the cryptocurrency sparked quite bizarre price swings.