Summary:
- Oil rises in excess of 7% on the week; set for largest gain since July
- US banks kick-off earnings season by beating the street but fall lower
- More Crypto gains as Santander launches Ripple payment app
- CADCHF recommendation from Morgan Stanley
It’s been a great week for oil bulls with the price of crude surging higher as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East threaten to rise once more. Even a large build in the latest DOE inventory figures couldn’t stop the rally which has seen Brent Oil move to its highest level since 2014. The market currently trades higher by more than 7% on the week and is on track for its largest weekly gains since last July.
The latest earnings releases from 3 large US banks has seen the earnings season for Wall Street begin in earnest on a positive note with JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all posting pleasing results. The news boosted the broader benchmarks with the US500 touching a 3-week high, but there has been a bit of selling into the European close and it may be premature to declare stock out of the woods just yet.
The cryptocurrency sphere as a whole experienced an abnormal jump in valuation over the past 24 hours with many of the coins being a subject to over 10% increase in price. For instance Bitcoin managed to surpass both $7000 and $8000 marks within less than an hour. Banking behemoth Santander Group is said to launch its Ripple payment app today. The app named One Pay FX is targeted at small businesses and is said to allow easier cross-border foreign exchange.
Looking at the latest trade recommendations form banks, Morgan Stanley has issued a recommendation for the CADCHF currency pair. More information can be found here.