Summary:

• Stocks advance amid abating Trade Fears

• Bitcoin holds firm above $8000 mark

• Earnings marathon in the US begins

Friday is exceptionally calm in terms of macroeconomic release thus the geopolitical factors may be a thing that drives the market today. Moreover, earnings season on Wall Street has begun and majors like JPMorgan and Citigroup are expected to submit their reports today. Japanese yen is the biggest underperformer among G10 as risk-on sentiment arrived at the markets. AUD is outperforming its peers on the back of the rise in the Chinese imports. Commodities trade broadly higher with wheat being the only one to post noticeable decline.

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. Surge began around 12:00 pm BST yesterday and some name Santander’s plans to launch crypto payment app as a reason behind the move.

After the French President Emmanuel Macron showed his support for US plans to punish Syria for alleged use of chemical weapon against its civilians UK Prime Minister Theresa May urged her cabinet for support the case. As it was granted for her the attack seems to be a matter of time as US-UK-France coalition opts for a firm action.

Equities in the US rose after President Donald Trump delivered some remarks suggesting easing tensions between US and China as negotiations between two world’s biggest economies have begun. Apart from that we will mention Chinese trade data as it showed deficit in balance for the first time sime February 2017.

The macro calendar will not be the thing that investors are really crazy about this Friday as the releases are second tier at best. Being already past the trade data from China release the only noticeable release is the US University of Michigan sentiment indicator.