Summary:

• Oil prices trade higher following fresh revelations from Kurdistan
• Euro remains one of the best currency across G10 space, Antipodean currencies lag behind
  
• Stocks hold onto moderate gains while Bitcoin (BTCUSD on xStation5) continues sliding

Tuesday has been passing quite positively as stock markets have continued holding moderate gains while oil prices have been one of the largest market mover thus far. Oil prices have gained a foothold earlier today as Kurdistan regional authorities accused Iraqi forces of launching an attack towards the Turkish border, where a section of the Kurdish oil export pipeline is located. Both WTI and Brent prices are increasing approximately 0.8%. On top of that, iron ore prices are gaining 0.7% while copper prices are higher over 1%. That said, changes across the commodity space have yet to translate into the FX market.

Thus, the Australian dollar is the second worst currency in the G10 space, giving way just to the NZ dollar. In turn the latter is being depressed by another political talks from the new government, hence its Australian counterpart could be lower due to the bleak performance seen in the NZD. On the flip side, the euro and the Norwegian krone are among the strongest currencies. As far as the single currency is concerned, help came from preliminary PMIs which by and large proved to be robust another month in a row. Whereas the NOK is being supported by rising oil prices.

After a bleaker session on Wall Street yesterday (all three major indexes slid) the Asian indices ended up the second session this week with mixed moods. Even though the European equity markets have kicked off slightly lower, they could be buoyed by another bunch of excellent PMIs for October. Having said that, investors could find it hard to make more notable decisions before the ECB meeting as the central bank is expected to cut its monthly asset purchases, a move which could be detrimental to the stock market (all other things equal).

Bitcoin is quite easily giving back its gains being already markedly below $6000. On the other hand, other digital currencies such as Litecoin (LTCUSD), Dash (DSHUSD) or Ripple (XRPUSD) seem to be catching up as they’ve been on the sidelines of late despite a surge seen in Bitcoin. However, the ongoing pullback in the most famous virtual currency could prove to be a decent buying opportunity in the longer-term. This is especially true when we take into account the newest remarks from Ronnie Moas who predicts that Bitcoin’s market capitalization will outstrip Apple’s total market value.

Looking ahead, there will be a weekly report on a change in oil stockpiles delivered by the American Petroleum Institute, the release could steer expectations ahead of the DoE’s publication which will be revealed tomorrow.