Daily summary: Markets struggle to extend rally

• Stocks from Western Europe mostly higher

• US markets little changed

• Rising inflation expectations in the US

Investors witnessed a mixed session during the last trading day of the week. Following rather pessimistic moods during Asian hours, most major indices from Western Europe finished the day higher. The German DAX gained 0.06% and closed above 14,000 pts. FTSE 100 and CAC 40 advanced 0.94% and 0.60% respectively. US markets opened lower, yet market bulls try to push stocks higher - at press time S&P 500 and Nasdaq are trading slightly above the flatline. 

Oil markets extend rally as Brent and WTI prices advance more than 2% today. An upward move accelerated in the afternoon GMT time and WTI has approached the $60 a barrel mark. As far as precious metals are concerned, silver outperforms gold and gains more than 1%. US yields continue their rally amid soaring inflation expectations in the US. University of Michigan 1-year inflation outlook climbed to 3.3% (above expected 3.0%). The British pound climbed above 1.3850 against the US dollar. 

Today’s data from the United Kingdom showed that UK economy expanded faster than forecasted in 4Q as it grew by 1.0% QoQ against expected 0.5%. On the other hand, industrial production from the UK for December came in slightly below estimates (0.2% MoM vs exp. 0.5%). The release of UoM’s survey data was another key macro event of the day - the data left investors disappointed as headline consumer sentiment index came in below expectations (76.2 vs exp. 80.8).

US30 broke above resistance area at 31,150 pts at the beginning of the week. The threshold turned out to become a support level later. According to classical technical analysis, as long as the index stays above, one should expect a bullish scenario to continue. Source: xStation5