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EU Bullet Report – Gold And Oil On The Move

By Kurt Osterberg · On May 16, 2016

Today’s calendar is very light with only US PMI standing out this afternoon, which is expected to decline to 7 from 9.6 in April. Over the weekend, Chinese data came out weaker than expected however reactions were not very negative. The new string of bad data reveals though that China’s assumed recovery is still fragile.

Stocks: Despite very strong retail sales on Friday, US stocks closed the day lower. Asian stocks however are trading marginally higher, led by Nikkei, despite Soft Chinese data over the weekend. Indicators released on Saturday showed China’s investment, factory output and retail sales all grew more slowly than expected in April, raising fears that a bounce seen in March is slowing down.

Oil and Gold: Oil prices jumped 1% after news that Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply following global oil disruptions. Supply disruptions from Nigeria, Venezuela, the United States and China triggered a U-turn in the oil outlook of Goldman Sachs, which long warned of overflowing storage. WTI crude futures CLc1 were up 68 cents, or 1. %, at $46.89 a barrel. Gold rose for a second session on Monday, as slowing economic growth in China and weakness in Asian stock markets lifted the safe-haven appeal of the precious metal. Spot gold gained 0.4% to $1,280 an ounce by 0610 GMT.

Currencies: EUR/USD fell to the lowest level of 1.1282 in May on strong Retail Sales data on Friday and is now hovering a bit around 1.1315. AUD/USD is recovering despite Weak china Data, while GBP/USD started the day at 1.4350, little changed from Friday’s close. USD/JPY was supported by the rally in the Nikkei and rose from 108.50 to almost 109.00.