Summary:
- Trump tweet weighs on the USD
- CAD soars after strong retail sales beat
- Barclays wants to use blockchain technology
- DE30 falls back to little changed on the week
Donald Trump likes to be in the spotlight. This week has begun with his equivocal comments he delivered in Helsinki when met with Vladimir Putin pertaining to Russian meddling in the US presidential election. Then, he explicitly criticized the current monetary policy course in the United States, and today he offered the final nail in US assets’ coffin branding the EU and China as currency manipulators. The US dollar is sliding across the board after the remarks, with traders clearly of the belief that he may attempt to depreciate the buck in the not too distant future.
The USDCAD has seen one of the most notable moves, due to not only the pullback int he buck but also a surge higher in the loonie after some better than expected data. The Canadian price growth accelerated further beyond the Bank of Canada inflation target. The retail sales reading released simultaneously provided more fuel for CAD bulls.
Strong gains earlier this week had seen some start to call fall a resurgence in the cryptocurrency space, but as of yet the market has failed to add significantly to Tuesday’s large rise. The capitalization of the whole market sits a notch below $285 billion while the capitalization of altcoins stands below $160 billion. On the news front Barclays, one of the biggest UK’s banks, is exploring possible benefits it could obtain from blockchain and while this is hardly groundbreaking it does indicate that financial institutions are still looking into incorporating the technology into their operations.
The DE30 has come under pressure this afternoon and fallen back lower, with the market erasing all of the week’s gains. Car makers are among the worst performing stocks from the DAX index on Friday. It seems like trade tensions and looming car tariffs are still taking their toll on companies like BMW (BMW.DE) or Volkswagen (VOW.DE).