Positive mood for oil, silver, and stock markets
Positive mood for oil, silver, and stock markets:
Hopes for more US stimulus packages were boosted after a two-hour meeting on Monday
between US President Joe Biden and a group of Republicans in the Senate for discussing the reducing the size of Biden’s proposed Covid-19 stimulus package.
Although the meeting was “very fruitful”, Biden said that if the stimulus package was curtailed it would not be sufficient in solving the Covid-19 crisis.
Biden stressed his determination to maintain the $ 1.9 trillion package he proposed in January.
However, Democrat lawmakers submitted the $ 1.9 trillion budget to Parliament on Monday in a step towards
bypassing Republicans to pass the package to Congress, ahead of the formal meeting.
Evest is following up effects of these moves on financial markets.
Oil is rising supported by good sentiment
Oil prices rose today for continuing positive movement since this week’s start.
A barrel of Brent North Sea reached $ 56.89, rising by 54 cents from Monday’s close.
The price of a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate rose by 57 cents to record $ 54.12.
Since the beginning of the trading week, the price of US oil has increased by more than 4%.
Markets observers indicated that the general mood in international financial markets has recently been positive.
This by its turn led to an increase in oil prices this morning.
As risk appetite increased, dollar demand also decreased affecting the price of the green currency.
Since crude oil in US currency, a weak dollar makes raw materials decrease.
Thus, demand strengthens.
In addition, demand forecast by Saudi oil company “Aramco” supported oil prices.
World’s largest oil company assumes that global demand for crude oil is likely to return to the level it was before the Corona crisis in recent years.
OPEC group had decreased a total of 7.2 million barrels of its production a day in January in order to support the market
as oil demand was weak because of a new strain of Coronavirus “Covid-19”.
Saudi Arabia’s voluntary decrease to produce 1 million barrels of oil remains effective in raising prices.
Expectations for an accelerated stimulus package in the United States of America and developments
in vaccine supplies in Europe supported rising in oil prices.
On the other hand, a number of Coronavirus “Covid-19” cases and deaths which continue to rise all over the world put pressure on prices.
The number of cases of the Covid-19 epidemic exceeded 103 million worldwide, while the number of deaths exceeded 2 million.
Gold is retreating… Silver is near its highest levels at all
On Tuesday morning, Gold fell in Asia but the focus remained on silver as investors gained profits from Monday’s rally.
Gold futures declined by 0.28% to record $ 1,858.65 an ounce.
During the previous session, silver prices rose by about 11.2%,
near their all-time highs which were recorded in February 2013.
The price of the precious metal rose after retail investors piled into the market so as to raise prices.
Positive performance in World Stock Exchanges.
On Monday, in the United States, stock indices rose by 08-2.5%
to offset most of last week’s losses which were fuelled by fears
regarding the market bubble on the back of GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
Last week was the worst for the market since last October.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose by 3,773.86 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.8% to reach 30,211.91 points.
Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 2.5% to record 13,403.39 points.
Hopes for economic aids besides the Federal Reserve’s pledge to maintain ample low-cost credit have pushed Standard & Poor’s and other major indices to record levels.
On Monday, GameStop stocks were down by 30.8% after rising at a rate of 400% last week.
On Friday, the Robinhood trading platform announced that it is allowing limited purchases of the company’s shares.
The day before, Robin Hood banned trading shares of GameStop and other companies whose shares had begun to be bought by individual investors.
Investors continue to monitor progress in negotiations on a new package of measures to support the US economy.
Market focus is remaining on corporate reports as 100 companies included in Standard & Poor’s Index
such as Amazon and Alphabet are expected to announce their financial results this week.
In Asia, markets followed the rise in Wall Street after President Joe Biden called Republicans to a meeting for discussing economic aids
and positive dynamics of stock indices prevailed as the Japanese Nikkei index rose at a range of 0.9% while the Chinese Shanghai Composite rose by 0.8%.
In Hong Kong, Hang Seng rose by 1.5%.
Kospi in Seoul rose at a rate of 1.4%.In Sydney, S&P-ASX 200 rose by 1.5%.
Indian Sensex opens 2% higher. New Zealand’s stock market retreated while it rose in both Singapore and Bangkok.
It has not significantly changed in Jakarta.
Reserve Bank of Australia kept its benchmark interest rate at a low record (0.1% annually) after its meeting on Tuesday.
This indicates the need for more support to the economy amid Coronavirus “Covid-19” pandemic.
Reserve Bank of Australia also announced an expansion of its quantitative easing program by another 100 billion Australian dollars (76.4 billion US dollars).
The current program of $ 100 billion will end in half of April.
In Washington, Biden invited 10 moderate Republicans to the White House so as to discuss his proposed $ 1.9 trillion economic aid plan.
Earlier, Republicans responded with an offer of $ 600 billion, or less than a third of the amount Biden had proposed before.