With 90 minutes before the start of a new week of trading in the U.S. markets – futures are pointing to a slightly lower open despite uncertainty whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will being tapering its $85 billion asset buying program.
The Bank of Japan took control of it’s currency in grand style last week, having duly selected the largest hypodermic they could find, filled it with steroids, and then injected a syringe full directly into the artery of the dollar yen.
Gold continued to trade in a narrow range once again yesterday, with the April gold futures contract closing marginally lower and ending the gold trading session with a narrow spread down candle, closing just below the psychological $1600 per ounce level at $1594.80 per ounce.
May crude oil futures continued to climb higher once again in yesterday’s trading session, closing at $96.51 per barrel, with a narrow spread up candle with wicks to both top and bottom on the daily chart.
As the old saying goes, another day and another dollar. Well not quite, and for silver traders it’s getting to the stage where a dollar move in the trading session would be considered a significant one! Yesterday’s trading, certainly didn’t break the mould of the last few weeks, and traders must be wondering if this market is every going to break.
Morning Coffee Break – Friday March 22 As we get ready to start the final session of the week traders will be without a doubt will be focused on the developments in Cyprus. Or should I say lack of development as Cyprus leaders’ hopes for a Russia bailout loan has fallen part and are going into the weekend with no deal and the European Central Bank deadline set for Monday
Oil prices rallied nicely in yesterday’s trade but once again had trouble getting above the 50-day moving averages in WTI and Brent. Today’s trade could witness a similar disposition, as the general reaction by risk markets yesterday to “bullish” news from the Fed was to finish either lower on the day (as equities did) or significantly below the day’s highs (as energies and precious metals did).
Energy Price Outlook Oil prices may fall slightly in the near-term, as pressure is offered by technical factors and the lack of progress in fiscal cliff negotiations. Background pressure will come from next week’s OPEC meeting where quotas are expected to be left unchanged, and from the growing amount of U.S. oil production. These could take WTI down toward the $85.00/bbl level through year-end unless a fix to the
Oil prices are likely to hold within their relatively sideways direction in the near-term, as support from a weaker dollar is countered by uncertainty over the fiscal cliff. WTI had a nice bounce early in the session yesterday but fell back to close near the day’s low
Welcomes to today’s Morning Coffee Break – U.S. markets are coming of the largest single day gains since early September. Depending on which analysts have the airways the move was due to an extreme oversold condition while others point to the growing confidence in a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.
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