Daily Summary: rising geopolitical tension supports oil gains

US indices record slight gains, erasing larger profits at the session's opening. US500 is up 0.15% and US100 0.10%. Despite this, both indices are trading at historical highs set in Friday's session. However, smaller-cap companies, represented by the Russell 2000, are doing relatively well, currently gaining close to 1.2%.

In Europe, stock indexes also recorded gains. Germany's DAX gained nearly 0.77% at the end of the session, and France's CAC 40 gained nearly 0.56%.

The dollar (USD) returns to gains despite an uncertain start to the day. EURUSD records slight declines at 0.05%. In the broader FX market, the British pound and the Japanese yen are currently performing the best. Antipodean currencies are currently experiencing significant drops.

Uncertainty in the Middle East and Ukraine is driving up WTI oil prices. The price of a barrel of oil (OIL.WTI) gains over 2.20% today to $75.25.

NATGAS records close to 4.50% declines, thereby extending a 5-day sell-off on the instrument that already exceeds 30%.

In December 2023, the Conference Board's leading economic indicator for the USA slightly fell by 0.1% to 103.1, continuing a weak trend with a 2.9% drop over the last six months of the year.

Bitcoin loses close to 2.5% in intraday trading and has approached the key zone at the 40,000 USD level. Significant downward dynamics are also observed in Altcoins. Ethereum is currently down 3.5% and is trading in the 2370 USD zone.

The declines are driven by further reports of transfers from the Grayscale ETF fund, which today sent another tranche of 19k Bitcoins.