The price of crude oil has continued to fall to lower 5-month low prices due to weak Chinese economic data and demand and fears that a supply glut may be building.
- Crude Oil continues to look weak, plunging sharply yesterday to a new 5-month low, with WTI trading as low as $69.13. The decline is due to a general risk-off twist in the market over the past few days, but also to fears of a supply glut and an increasing economic slowdown in China. Trend traders may be interested here on the short side.
- The Bank of Canada’s policy meeting yesterday produced no surprises. It left its Overnight Rate unchanged at 5% while maintaining its hawkish bias. The Loonie did not react.
- Yesterday’s ADP Non-Farm Employment Change forecast predicted only 103k new jobs created last month, while 131k was expected. This is more evidence of a slowing US economy.
- Market sentiment has turned more risk-off in recent days, boosting the US Dollar and depressing stocks, while also causing many commodities to sell off. In the Forex market, since the Tokyo open, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency, while the New Zealand Dollar has been the weakest.
- Bitcoin is making a bullish consolidation near its recent 18-month high above $44,000. The cryptocurrency has declined within the last few hours but will remain interesting on the long side to trend traders.
- The Euro is relatively weak as market analysts increasingly expect rate cuts from the European Central Bank in 2024.
- There will be a release today of US Unemployment Claims data, which is expected to predict new claims last week of 221k.