Summary:

  • Leading UK stock benchmark hits all-time high
  • USD mixed following GDP miss; Gold moving higher
  • Canadian dollar higher across the board after CPI and retail sales beat
  • EURNOK hits highest since 2008
  • Ripple hits new record peak

The FTSE 100 (UK100 on xStation) has rallied strongly today moving above its previous record peak set back in June to post a new all-time high. The index has been in a broad consolidation range from 7200-7600 for the last 6 months against a positive global backdrop for equities that has seen US stocks break records regularly.

A batch of data from the US has come in a little on the disappointing side causing a spike higher in Gold and weighing on the US dollar. The headline data came in the form of GDP with the final reading for the 3rd quarter coming in at 3.2% annualised against an expected 3.3% which would have been in line with the prior.

A technical overview for Gold can be found here. 

Whilst the US data release may have stolen the headlines this afternoon, the economic figures from Canada are perhaps the bigger surprise. First off, inflation seems to have picked up with the CPI M/M increasing to 0.3% from 0.1% previously – higher than the 0.2% expected. The Y/Y reading rose to 2.1% moving above the 2.0% target.

The Norwegian currency has had though times of late fuelled mainly on the back of growing risks surrounding the domestic housing market and even more the hawkish attitude of the Norges Bank has not changed this at all. The EURNOK hit its highest level in nearly a decade today.

Although the buying frenzy has been focused chiefly on Bitcoin of late the spree seems to be turning to Ripple, being the fourth largest cryptocurrency market based on market capitalization. The market briefly hit the 1.00 mark this afternoon but there has been a notable pullback since. This selling coincided with a drop in Bitcoin which fell to its lowest level of the week, just above the 15000 handle. Taking the recent peak of 19572 as the top the market has now declined a little over 20% from its high and therefore, by traditional categorisation, has entered a bear market!