Summary:

• Stocks rise despite retaliatory Chinese tariffs; US100 leads the charge

• Volkswagen surges after electric vehicle unveiled

• Oil turns higher on Saudi and OPEC talk; Near key resistance

• Ripple surges higher as Bitcoin wallets continue to rise

• Top 3 charts this week: JAP225, Oil, EURUSD

They say that markets don’t top on bad news, and this seems to be clearly evident in the US today with a strong recovery seen so far today after the major US indices took a swift swoon late last night on the unveiling of further US tariffs on China. The tariffs are undoubtedly a negative development as far as the world’s two largest economies are concerned, but despite this the market reaction has been quite positive for stocks. An ability to look through negative news and still rise is a common characteristic of bull markets - as the old saying goes bull markets climb a wall of worry - and despite several reasons to the contrary the bulls still remain firmly in control of the tape with the US100 leading the charge higher.

Volkswagen (VOW.DE) can be found among the best performing DAX stocks today. Audi, subsidiary of the German carmaker, unveiled its electric vehicle yesterday. The reception was quite good and the company said that the first models will be sold and delivered in the first half of 2019. While some time ago the electric vehicle market was mainly associated with Tesla (TSLA.US), some major car manufacturers announced their own electric automobiles lately, including BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

One of the biggest movers today is Oil, with the price of crude jumping strongly higher following comments from both OPEC and Saudi Arabia. The move of around 140 ticks in an hour is even larger than the spike seen on Friday and suggests that traders are eager to buy the market of late. The fundamental reason behind the spike seemed mainly to be comments from Saudi Arabia, with the kingdom reportedly said to prefer Brent back above $80 a barrel.

There’s been some stellar gains seen in Ripple today, with the cryptocurrency jumping over 20%. Price is now back above the $0.30 level but it remains a far cry from where it traded earlier this year. While the price of Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies as well) tends to swing substantially, the number of new wallets is not subject to such volatility instead it has been constantly increasing over the recent quarters. This shows that while speculators could be unwilling to trade Bitcoin and other virtual currencies so eagerly as they did at the end of the past year, fundamentally the blockchain technology keeps gaining popularity as evidenced for example by the number of Bitcoin wallets.

For this week our top 3 charts are the JAP225, Oil and EURUSD and these can be viewed here.