Summary:
- Oil under pressure on supply increase talk
- Positive revisions to US retail sales fail to boost the buck
- US stocks little changed and Blackrock and BofA report earnings
- Cryptocurrencies moving higher
- Is it time for a USDCHF reversal?
There’s been some strong selling seen in oil markets this afternoon with price falling by more than 3% after Saudi Arabia hinted that it may boost its output and data from the IMF showed a slowdown is expected in global economic growth. With the Trump-Putin summit still ongoing there remains much that can happen here but the outlook for oil is starting to look less positive and there is a case to be made that further declines may lie ahead.
The latest consumer spending figures from the US have come in broadly in line with forecasts, although some upwards revisions to prior prints gives a slight positive skew to the releases. First off the headline retail sales for May came in at +0.5% M/M, inline with the forecast. This is the second consecutive beat for this data, and with the prior reading being revised higher to 1.3% from 0.8% beforehand, it can be seen to be mildly positive. Despite this the US dollar has failed to gain and is lower against most of its peers on the day.
It’s been a fairly subdued start to the new week as far as stocks are concerned with the US500 pulling back a little after earlier just about edging up to its highest level in 6 months. Turning our attention to individual shares Blackrock, Bank of America and Tesla are all in focus with the first two announcing their latest trading update while the latter has seen another controversial development surrounding its CEO.
One area that has begun the week brightly is cryptocurrencies with with notable gains seen in all 5 markets. Russia, a host of this year’s World Cup, has developed a new list of trusted crypto companies. The Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain created this whitelist to limit cryptocurrencies frauds. Russians have lost over 4 million dollars due to frauds connected to digital currencies so far this year.
Finally, the Swiss Franc is at a level where a potential reversal could lie ahead. We look at the chances of a recovery in CHF in more depth here.