Summary:

• US data smashes forecasts

• Benchmarks from Wall Street head for the biggest weekly gain in five years

• Euro underperforms against its G10 peers

In the previous week equities on the global stock markets remained on the backfoot following recent slump. This week has shown a different picture. Benchmarks from Wall Street are set to post biggest weekly advance in five years while the European stocks headed for the biggest weekly gain in over a year. Norwegian krone is top performer among G10 currencies while euro is the top laggard. Gold and oil prices advance.

University of Michigan’s data pack was the last relevant release scheduled for this week and it offered investors positive surprise by beating expectations significantly. The inflation expectations remained on the previous levels. Moreover, US stocks are set for the biggest weekly gain in five years.

A pack of data from the US housing markets has been released recently. US housing market is doing exceptionally well as both building permits and housing starts prints surprised investors to the upside. USD gains with USDIDX moving further away from the 88.48 level marking previous low.

Gold prices have increased so far this week the most in the recent two years which could bode well for buyers going forward. Therefore there is the likelihood to see the commodity price breaking its crucial long-term resistance. Do notice that increased demand for gold occurs despite rises across global equity markets and rising US yields.

The Bitcoin price has been able to breach a $10k mark for the first time this month but it’s failed to stay there for a longer period of time. What’s more, from a technical standpoint one cannot rule out a pullback as the digital currency has already faced a notable resistance being additionally underpinned by an upper boundary of an ascending channel.