Summary:

  • Major indices higher barring US100 which feels Facebook plunge
  • Carmakers surge as US-EU steps away from tariffs
  • Euro drifts lower after fairly uneventful ECB meeting
  • Commodity snapshot
  • Crypto dips; US presidential candidate says he’ll accept crypto donations

Overall it’s been a fairly good day for stocks with most of the major indices in the green on the European cash close. The US100 is a notable lagged with the tech heavy index suffering after Facebook shares fell almost 20% on the open after posting its latest results last night. There are no such worries for the US30 which has kicked on and built on the gains seen into last night’s closing bell.

The rally yesterday evening was largely due to news that the US and EU seem to be stepping down in their ongoing trade war with Trump and Juncker delivering a promising message following their meeting. Tariffs on automobiles are now expected to be relaxed, and this has caused a strong move higher in European car manufacturers, with BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen all helping to boost the DE30 higher.

Today’s ECB decision marks the 6th anniversary of the famous “whatever it takes” line from Draghi in reference to what the central bank would do to save the Euro, but unfortunately there wasn’t any major fireworks this lunchtime. The overall tone was in keeping with recent communications, but while the market reaction was fairly muted their has been a steady move lower in the Euro since, while stocks indices added to their early gains.

 A brief overview of the latest developments in the commodity space can be found here, in our commodity snapshot.

It’s still looking like being a good week for Bitcoin, but the crypto space as a whole has pulled back a little today with all 5 markets in the red. The capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has broken a $300 billion level while the Bitcoin market cap sits subtly above $140 billion. The most interesting news for this asset class today is arguably that Andrew Yang, a Democratic candidate for 2020 US presidential elections, has announced that he would be accepting cryptocurrency donations