Crude Oil continued its recent strongly bullish rise as a high chance of an Iranian Axis strike on Israel was anticipated yesterday.
- Crude Oil rose by over 3% yesterday after rising by more than 10% within a week, due mainly to rising tensions in the Middle East coinciding with what was seen yesterday as the likeliest moment for an Iranian attack on Israel. Many analysts expected an attack last night, which did not materialise. There are now reports that Turkey is communicating confidence that an attack will not be forthcoming to the USA, which wants to convene a summit on an Israel / Hamas ceasefire this Thursday, which would now effectively become an Israel vs Hamas / Hezbollah / Iran ceasefire. This may be why Crude Oil futures are trading sideways this morning. Of course, an Iranian attack could still materialise at any point, although Israeli and US forces are on high alert and appear well-positioned to defend and attack, possibly pre-emptively.
- Stock markets have continued to recover following the strong selloff over the early part of last week. A standout performer today is the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index, which is up by more than 2.75% today. The essential theme in the market today is mostly weak risk-on sentiment.
- In the Forex market, the New Zealand Dollar has been the strongest major currency while the Japanese Yen has been the weakest, putting the NZD/JPY currency cross in focus again for a second consecutive day. The US Dollar is consolidating. Trend traders will remain interested in being long EUR/USD although there has been very slow movement in that currency pair lately.
- Gold came very close to trading at a record high yesterday before selling off in recent hours. Yesterday’s New York close in Gold was a record close, which will have led many trend traders to enter a new long position here. As the price is falling, it may be wise to wait for a supportive candlestick on say at least a 4-hour time frame to pick a good entry.
- Australian Wage Price Index data came in a fraction lower than expected, continuing a theme of declining inflationary pressure in most of the world.
- Today will bring two high-impact data releases:
- US PPI (seen as a key inflation indicator)
- UK Claimant Count Change (Unemployment Claims)
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