Daily Close | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture February 15, 2021

183932-16x9-700x394

Currencies

The rosy mood certainly made its way into foreign exchange markets, where the anti-risk US Dollar and similarly-behaving Japanese Yen were some of the worst-performing G10 currencies. The argument for SPY most frequently advanced is that it has by far and away from the highest daily dollar trading volume and the shortest interest. Japanese and Euro Area GDP data will cross the wires as Australia release its latest jobs report. Meanwhile, the growth-oriented Australian Dollar outperformed its major counterparts.

Metals

Even so, hedge funds and big investors are carrying historic high levels of short positions in silver, up to $38 billion in short positions. That behavior keeps gold and silver prices lower than they would be absent such short selling. If you are an investor, do not buy SPY to access exposure to the S&P 500 and most definitely do not buy GLD to access gold. Taking a look at commodities, crude oil prices soared 4.67% as gold traded relatively flat. All the talk about money coming in has not pushed gold higher.
Gold came down to the daily Buy 1 level of $1815. Gold is having a hard time coming down. Courtesy: Ticker Tocker Gold does not trade on the fundamentals. Gold trades on its own technicals. Gold bullion. Silver did run up to $30.35 and should have gone further.

Oil

Piper Sander analyst Brent Bracelin maintained an Overweight rating and increased the price target from $488 to $600.

United States

Unlike the Fed, the ECB has price stability as its principal mandate and views 2% inflation as a ceiling, not a level to be achieved on average over time. Tom Barkin, President of the Richmond Fed, said in a newspaper interview that he expects “short-term price volatility,” but says he focuses on medium-term inflation expectations. But not surprisingly, there has been a massive reversion, with the Russell now trading back to levels last seen in March versus the Nasdaq 100.
Philadelphia Fed Chief Patrick Harker is also sanguine about inflation prospects. It isn’t that the Nasdaq 100 has fallen; it is just that the Russell 2000 has surged faster than the Nasdaq in recent months. In October, at a point, the Nasdaq 100 traded at its highest level to the Russell 2000 since the dot.com bubble in the year 2000. He has been quoted in a variety of financial news publications, such as CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. Exchanges in China and Hong Kong are offline for the Lunar New Year, with Wall Street closed on Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.00%, 1.23%, and 1.73% respectively.

0