Morning Briefing: Markets trend higher despite Trump, commodities

Markets trend higher despite Trump, commodities... Slowing demand hits commodities...

Morning Briefing: Markets trend higher despite Trump, commodities
Steve Randall
Markets trend higher despite Trump, commodities
World markets are generally higher Friday despite a new slump for oil prices and President Trump’s announcement regarding climate change.
 
Asian indexes closed mostly higher with China slipping but Japan showing a large gain on a weaker yen and following a boost to its consumer confidence index.
 
European markets are trending higher with banks gaining following comments made by Fed speakers that suggest another US interest rate rise is likely this month. Politics continues to play its part with the UK general election now less than a week away and the polls showing a tight margin between the two main parties.
 
Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open higher. Canadian merchandise trade and US labour data are due.
 

 

Latest

1 month ago

1 year ago

 

North America (previous session)

US Dow Jones

21,144.18 (+0.65 per cent)

+0.93 per cent

+18.23 per cent

TSX Composite

15,469.91 (+0.78 per cent)

-0.96 per cent

+9.43 per cent

 

Europe (at 5.00am ET)

UK FTSE

7,565.75 (+0.29 per cent)

+4.35 per cent

+22.31 per cent

German DAX

12,825.06 (+1.26 per cent)

+2.54 per cent

+25.64 per cent

 

Asia (at close)

China CSI 300

3,486.51 (-0.32 per cent)

+1.75 per cent

+10.09 per cent

Japan Nikkei

20,177.28 (+1.60 per cent)

+3.76 per cent

+21.82 per cent

 

Other Data (at 5.00am ET)

Oil (Brent)

Oil (WTI)

Gold

Can. Dollar

49.22

(-2.78 per cent)

46.99

(-2.83 per cent)

1264.40

(-0.45 per cent)

U$0.7388

 

Aus. Dollar

U$0.7381

 
Slowing demand hits commodities
Oil and gold prices are lower Friday, the latter due to a boost for the greenback after Donald Trump said the US will pull out of the Paris climate change agreement.
 
For oil, weaker demand is weighing as the supply glut fails to reduce to the levels that were hoped for when the OPEC nations first introduced their production cut in January.
 
Slowing demand is also an issue for other commodities including grain, which now has a global stockpile larger than ever, even before the 2017 harvest.
 
“You can see weakness emerging in many parts of the supply chain,” Colin Hamilton, global head of commodities research at Macquarie told Bloomberg.
 
Iron ore is another commodity which may have passed its cyclical peak according to Macquarie’s latest report.
 
With China’s economy still lacking, there may be further tough times ahead.
 

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