Overnight on Wall Street: Thursday 04 February 2021

Equity markets

Major US and European indices had a quiet night finishing mostly flat after 3 days of solid gains.

US corporate earnings have been strong all week helping to lift equity markets and give investors optimism that the US economic recovery is progressing well.

Paypal (PYPL) reported after the bell with figures beating analysts’ expectations soaring 7% in the aftermarket and helping to propel US futures higher.

Source: Google Finance

Source: Investing.com.au

Australian and Asian markets have opened mostly flat to slightly negative at the time of writing with no major news scheduled for these regions.

FX markets 

The US Dollar Index continued its recent upward move. It has found stiff resistance at levels set back in late 2020. A break to the upside could see a prolonged US dollar rally as improving US economic fundamentals make the greenback a more attractive investment.

Source: GO MT4

AUDUSD

RBA Governor Lowe spoke yesterday at the National press Club and gave an upbeat outlook of Australia’s economic recovery saying the recession sparked by the coronavirus pandemic was not as deep as first thought.

This helped the AUD to a positive session despite US dollar strength, technically the AUDUSD is remaining to be supported by the important 50 day moving average.

Source: GO MT4

Commodities – Oil

Crude oil rallied strongly overnight on a larger than expected inventories drawdown and more importantly from news from the monthly The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of the OPEC+ group.

OPEC+ did not make any recommendation about changing the oil production levels of the alliance, meaning the current production cuts are going ahead as planned.

Last night’s meeting also noted that an acceleration of vaccinations could spur a faster global growth recovery and increasing oil demand in the latter half of 2021.

Source: oilprice.com