Today's Highlights
Hire American - Sell American
A touch of the safety bug
Bitcoin Going Bananas Over Trump
Please note: All data, figures & graphs below are valid as of January 31st. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.
Market Overview
Things indeed started to take a turn for the red in global stocks yesterday. As the US' new Muslim travel ban continues to draw fire from all sides, it has become apparent to some that things are off to a very shaky start for the new president.
European indices like Ger30 and Fra40 saw losses of more than 1%, while the Dow Jones and SPX500 in the USA backed away from their all-time highs, declining by about 0.6%
The US dollar took a significant hit as investors have uniformly decided to stump trump and sell American. The US dollar index is again looking for support at the 100 points level.
Meanwhile, safe havens like gold, silver and the Japanese yen are rising as investors seek stability.
It should be noted that what we're seeing is still very mild. A sell-off in the US equities of less than 1% is far from panic and all things considered, the equity markets remain far more resilient than logic would dictate at this point.
The declines we have seen are just people taking some profits off the top and reducing exposure. Nobody is running screaming for the door at this point.
It seems that Wall Street sees this as a transitory road bump and is willing to allow some more time before panic mode sets in.
Bitcoin Goes Pop!
In the last hour, Bitcoin rose $10 a coin and is sure to attract more attention today.
We can partially attribute the move to safe haven trading. Alternative investors on the eToro network are seeing the confusion over Trump's Muslim ban as an opportunity to take advantage of the uncertainty.
In conjunction, the price is also being driven by the technical analysis. In this chart, we can see that the move was perpetuated by the rise above the $925 level. A level that was previously keeping it down.
What's next?
Well, the Bank of Japan thing happened already this morning. As expected, there was no change to policy. One thing that was shocking, perhaps the most shocking thing I've heard all day, is that the BoJ is expecting to hit 2% inflation in 2018.
If we look at the numbers though this figure simply doesn't add up. The CPI figures published last Friday showed that despite the rest of the world shrugging off deflation, Japan is still in the thick of it.
I guess BoJ Governor Kuroda figures that with all the BS flying out of the US lately he could fly this little white lie under the radar.
Disclaimer: This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.