Oil prices continued to move firmly lower once again in yesterday’s oil trading session with the WTI futures contract for August closing at $102.29 per barrel, and ending with a wide spread down candle as the commodity lost over a dollar per barrel on the day.
With the FOMC meeting now consigned to history, and the currency markets now returning to ‘business as usual’ here is a round up for the Aussie, the British pound, the Canadian dollar and of course the euro
The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, softened to a 2.3-percent year-on-year growth in June, triggering concerns of broader monetary policy easing as a whole-year outlook points to a soft inflation rate.
This morning our scans found the following names moving in the pre-market with significant volume this morning.
Oil continues to find it hard work, building on the bullish breakout of mid June, having moved into a sustained phase of price congestion over the last few weeks, as it continues to slide lower ahead of today’s oil inventories report.
With fear continuing to drain away from the VIX, it’s complacency that rules at present as the ultimate index of fear and greed continues to push ever lower and on towards the elusive single figures below ten.
In any escalation of political tension oil and gold are the two key commodities to watch. For oil the breakout and surge higher was largely driven by events in Iraq coupled with supply issues at Cushing, both of which combined to help power the WTI crude oil (USO, quote) contract up to the $107 per barrel price point as evidenced by last Thursday’s wide spread up candle.
Whilst the ongoing conflicts in both the Ukraine and Iraq are beginning to impact world markets, yesterday’s price action was less severe than expected. In other words, the price action was more of a pause than a major sell off.
On the daily gold chart we are at an interesting phase of price action. The weakness in the price of gold has been clearly evidenced since mid March, with each rally higher petering out. This was then followed by an extended phase of price congestion which saw the precious metal oscillate between $1315 per ounce to the upside and $1280 to the downside.
Whilst everyone’s attention on Friday was focused on the monthly circus which is the NFP, the VIX on the other hand slipped quietly and almost unnoticed below the 11.00 price point on the daily chart, to close the week at 10.73, its lowest level for many years.
