Summary:
- US dollar accelerates its gains as investors seem to expect another decent employment report
- Pound slips from its daily high despite a Brexit deal, mixed manufacturing data
- Stock markets thrive across the European continent
The most important release scheduled for today is still ahead, however it appears that investors are not afraid of any disappointments as the greenback has accelerated its gains lately. As for now just commodity-related currencies such as CAD, NZD and AUD have been able to resist the USD strength. Those in turn have been backed by impressive gains seen in the European stock markets which have moved up in the aftermath of a Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. Notice that the CAD is benefiting additionally from rising oil prices being up over 1% at the time of writing.
GBP has lost its momentum even as UK industrial production was able to meet analysts’ estimates coming in at 3.6% yoy in October while economists had expected a 3.5% pick-up. In turn construction output disillusioned quite substantially printing a 0.2% yoy decline. The pound is among the weakest currencies in G10 right now even though the UK and the EU struck a deal to unlock divorce negotiations, opening the way for further talks.
A continuation of recovery in the technology sector, upbeat trade data from China, weaker euro against dollar and progress in Brexit talks are among factors improving sentiment on stock markets this morning. European benchmarks started the second consecutive session in the green, however, the release of the NFP report from the US labour market could lead to a reshuffle later today. After a half of trading DE30 is trading 1.2% higher while its major peers remain not far away.
Looking back to the Asian session we got GDP growth for Q3 which showed stronger than initially thought numbers in the past quarter coming in at 0.6% qoq against the prior reading at 0.3% qoq. In terms of an annualized basis there was 2.5% compared to the consensus placed at 1.5%. Although on the surface everything seems to be alright, the breakdown of growth is not so encouraging as household expenditure deducted the most for many quarters.
Bitcoin has been in the limelight so far this week, however there are several other cryptocurrencies which could gain momentum in the nearest future based on a technical analysis. Before we take a closer look at charts of the most promising digital currencies, let’s mention Bitcoin yet again as it reached its fresh peak a notch above $17k overnight but retreated subsequently. On top of that we are wondering here: is Bitcoin a modern version of the big silver corner from the 80’s?