- Stock market declines in Europe
- Good labour market report in the USA
- Strengthening of the dollar
- Rebound on the cryptocurrency market
- Oil getting more expensive
During today's session, we could observe a retreat on the main stock market indices of the Old Continent. Declines can be explained by the continuation of yesterday's negative sentiment, which is related to the decisions of the ECB and BoE. Although the European Central Bank did not change the rates, the speech of President Lagarde was received as hawkish. Rising government bond yields are also weighing on equity valuations from the Old Continent. The sectors that fared better today were energy and banking, benefiting from rising oil prices.
Looking at the US equity market on the other hand, despite a less than stellar start to trading, the final hours saw gains. At the time of preparing this commentary, the best performing index is the Nasdaq, which yesterday had its worst session since October 2020. Today, the technology index is up 1.8%. The S&P500 adds 0.85% and the Dow Jones is trading 0.25% higher.
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Create account Try a demo Download mobile app Download mobile appAs for the currency market, investors focused today on US labour market data, which came in better than expected and brings the Fed closer to normalising monetary policy. Immediately after the publication of the NFP report, we could observe a positive reaction on the US dollar. The dollar maintained its lead against the major currencies until the end of the session, giving way only to the euro. EURUSD reached today's January highs, but failed to surpass them.
Crude oil had an excellent day, with the price of "black gold" struggling to break above the level of $93 per barrel. There are several reasons for these rises. Firstly, investors are concerned about oil stocks, frosts in the USA and the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In addition, Saudi Arabia is warning that oil consumption will soon return to pre-pandemic Covid-19 levels. These factors are effectively mobilising bulls to buy oil. In the US, retail gasoline prices have reached 2014 peaks.
The digital currency market experienced a strong rebound in the second half of the session. The quotations of the main cryptocurrency - Bitcoin (BITCOIN) managed to go above the psychological barrier of $40 thousand, and the Ethereum (ETHEREUM) price is approaching the level of $3000.
The dollar index (USDIDX) stopped declines in the areas of important support - the lower limit of the growth channel. If a stronger rebound occurs here, a return to the main trend is not excluded. On the other hand, breakout from the bottom of the channel will open the way towards the next support at the level of 94.60. Source: xStation 5
