Summary:
- US stocks have rallied today after Trump stepped back on Syria talk
- ITA40 also benefiting from potential political breakthrough
- Technical overview of Gold
- Cryptos surge higher with double-digit gains seen
- SEK falls over 1% following disappointing inflation
It’s been a good day for stock market bulls with strong gains seen across Europe and US markets trading firmly higher. The origin of these gains can be traced to a Trump tweet around lunchtime when the US President seemingly eased off a little on his threats to launch missiles in Syria. The Wall Street open saw more gains with Blackrock also rising after the asset manager announced a pleasing set of results.
One of the best performing benchmarks in Europe is the ITA40, which has gained on the global move higher and also on hopes for an end to the recent political stalemate. On the eve of a second round of coalition talks, the leaders of Italy’s two leading political parties said they would work towards establishing a functioning government as soon as possible. The market is now at its highest level of the month and probing the top of its recent range around 23000.
The improvement in risk sentiment can be seen in Gold, which has dropped lower today following the strong move higher on Wednesday. A technical overview for Gold can be found here.
Oil has also fallen back after hitting a three-year high yesterday and a short video looking at the technical and fundamental situation for the market can be viewed here.
An in-depth look at possible outcomes from the Syrian dispute can be found here, with 6 reasons suggested.
There’s been a large move to the upside seen in cryptocurrencies today, although there is little by the way of news flow to support the surge. Double-digit gains can be seen in several crypto markets with Bitcoin rising by 11% and Ripple leading the way with a 13% increase. On the fundamental front one of the main stories is story concerning JP Morgan which has been accused of charging surprise fees when it stopped letting customers buy cryptocurrency with credit cards in late January and started treating the purchases as a cash advances.
From an FX perspective SEK is interesting today. Although many market participants still see the Riksbank hiking interest rates later this year, the odds moved down quite noticeably in the aftermath of the inflation release we got earlier today. As a result, the local krona depreciated appreciably both against the US dollar and the shared currency with the latter breaking above its crucial resistance.