Summary:
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US indices lower, but still on course for large monthly gains
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Stock of the week: Starbucks
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USD mixed on the day but higher against most for August
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Euro area inflation unexpectedly slows
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Turkish investors appreciate virtual currencies
Today marks the final trading day in August, and it’s been another good month for US stock market bulls with all 3 major indices setting on solid gains. The US500, US100 and US30 are all trading not far from where they ended last night but it could be worthwhile keeping a close eye on them this afternoon for any month-end flows. There are some short term technical reversal signals showing with a bearish engulfing candle on D1 and also a possible head and shoulders setting up on shorter time frames.
Interesting news concerning Starbucks (SBUX.US), an American coffeehouse chain, has surfaced lately. While the story may not be new at all, the latest announcements definitely make coffee company situation more clear and herald an increased revenue in the years to come. In this analysis we take a look at the deal finalized by the company lately, as well as at its most recent earnings report.
Looking at the heatmap on xStation we can see that the US dollar is fairly mixed on the day, with the greenback little changed against most of its peers, with emerging market currencies such as the BRL and TRY looking to recover from yesterday’s losses while the AUD and CAD are the two biggest losers vs the buck. Seeing as today is month-end it’s looking like it’s going to be another good month of gains for the US dollar with a trade-weighted index on course for a 5th consecutive monthly gain.
Price pressures in the Euro area increased by less than expected in the month of August providing more reason for the ECB to proceed with caution as they look to reign in their expansionary monetary policy. The Euro remains little changed on the day and while the pound and US dollar seem to be fairly sensitive to inflation figures the single currency has shown next to no reaction to this release, as it was already lower on the day and around these levels prior to the announcement.
Crypto markets are ending the week with a fairly mixed session with Ethereum and Ripple lower by between 1-2% while the other 3 cryptos are slightly higher. Bitcoin is up 0.5% and trades at 6935 at the time of writing. According to a survey by Statista, 18% of Turkish consumers owns Bitcoin or similar digital currencies. Turkey is followed by Romania (12%) and Poland (11%). The rank of countries having at least 10% of crypto holdings among consumers is summed by Spain (10%). What’s interesting, the three first ones belong to an emerging markets group.
