Still eyeing the weekend’s Trump/Xi meeting in Osaka, the markets ground their way through yet another session on Wednesday.
Abandoning an initial 150 point-plus surge, the Dow Jones had to settle for a 70 point increase, just about pushing it past 26600. The DAX, meanwhile, was effectively flat at 12250, while the CAC found itself slipping under 5000 as it lost 0.3%. The FTSE dipped 0.2%, meaning it managed to keep its head above 7400.
Gold, which had hit that 6-year peak on Tuesday, wasn’t looking quite so appealing, falling back to $1,411 after sliding 1.2%. Brent Crude continued to benefit from the tensions between the USA and Iran, the black stuff spurting 1.7% higher to sit at $66.15 per barrel.
As it has been for much of this quiet week, Bitcoin was the big winner, a 13% increase lifting it to a 17-month high of $12,850 despite a fair amount of scepticism still surrounding the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s remarkable rise in the last 8 sessions has coincided with the announcement of Facebook’s Libra, a move that has brought a bit more corporate sheen and interest to the market as a whole, just at a time when investors might be looking for different assets in the face of geopolitical tensions.
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