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Global stocks tend to rally
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Disappointing euro area industrial production
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Crude oil inventories rise - oil prices up roughly 3%
Yet another day global stocks tend to rally amid coronavirus updates. According to China’s National Health Commission there were 2,015 confirmed new cases and 97 deaths on the mainland. It means that the pace of the outbreak seems to decrease now with less than 100 deaths a day. This may actually be a positive sign for the future. As of Wednesday China reported a total of 44,653 cases, with over 1,100 deaths.
As mentioned above, investors give the impression of not really taking coronavirus threats into consideration. At the beginning of the session US stocks indices have jumped to new all-time highs. Equities may also extend gains amid optimism that coronavirus now spreads at a slower pace. Asian and European markets closed higher as well - DE30 breaking above 13,700 points, which is the new all-time high.
As far as EUR/USD is concerned, the euro is again being traded below the 1.0900 support level. As a matter of fact, investors got to know euro area industrial production data today. The reading turned out to be rather disappointing as EMU’s industrial production fell the most in 4 years - it slumped 2.1% from a month earlier in December 2019. At the same time, it sank 4.1% YoY (est. -2.3%).
Another crucial data published today is crude oil inventories. The reading indicates that crude oil inventories held by US firms rose 7.46 million barrels (est. 3.25 million). Yet oil prices are not really reacting to these figures. Still, traders may be particularly interested in oil’s demand growth cut, which was confirmed by OPEC in the report “Monthly Oil Market Report”. According to OPEC, oil’s demand growth is expected to rise 0.99 mbd in 2020 (growth was cut by 230k in comparison to the last forecast). The coronavirus outbreak in China is marked as the main factor of that cut. Both Brent and WTI are up roughly 3% today.
Both Brent and WTI are up roughly 3% today. Source: xStation5
