Asia: Gold, USD, Crude Oil, Stocks & Commodities

$GLD, $XAU, $SLV, $USD,$USO, $OIL, $WEAT, $CORN, $SOY

FLASH: Gold Down, USD Up, Crude Oil Up, Stocks Down

“The Stars look to be aligning for the Gold market, Gold could rise as high as $1,500 by the end of the year”– PE

The Big Q: Why the Melt Up?

The Big A: If gold remains above previous highs around $1,360-$1,390, this mark becomes strong technical support, resistance is at the August 2013 high of $1,433 and a Fibonacci retracement mark is around $1,483.

Notes: President Trump threatened Tuesday to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked “anything American,” in a new war of words with Iran which condemned fresh US sanctions on Tehran as “mentally retarded.” President Trump shrugged it off, with the USA has the world’s strongest military force, and Iran has just the Revolutionary Guard.

“Whatever they want to do, I am ready,” President Trump said.

“Their country is not doing well economically at all. That could be changed very quickly, very easily. But they have to get rid of the hostility from the leadership. The leadership, I hope they stay, I hope they do a great job, but they should talk to us peaceably.”

Investors and Traders await the meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi later this week for signs of a de-escalation in the trade dispute. The 2 world leaders will meet at the G-20 Summit in Japan.

The USD hit a multi-month low against the EUR and the JPY Tuesday on the prospects of monetary easing by the Fed while the safe-haven Swissie (CHF) and Gold rose on Middle East tensions.

Fed Chairman Powell and a few other of its policymakers spoke Tuesday and faded the prospects of a full point rate cut this year.

In Asia

Gold: Gold prices declined more than 1% Wednesday, moving off 6-year highs marked Tuesday, as Fed officials jawboned down expectations of aggressive rate cuts, while investors locked in profits following the strong rally.

• Spot gold was down 1.2% at $1,405.60 oz, as of 0339 GMT,
• US gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,413.30 oz.

The combination of length that was built-up in the market over the short-term, coupled with Fed’s Tuesday jawboning the market has flushed a lot of the weaker longs out of the market

Energy: Crude Oil prices rose more than 1% Wednesday to their highest in nearly a month as industry data showed US stockpiles fell more than expected, underpinning a market already buoyed by worries over a potential US-Iran conflict.

• Front-month ICE Brent Crude Oil futures were +1.3% at 65.91 by 0341 GMT. They earlier touched their highest since 31 May at $66 bbl,
• NYMEX WTI Crude Oil futures were at $58.98 bbl, +1.8% from their last settlement. WTI earlier hit its strongest mark since 30 May at $59.03 bbl.

Analysts said the gains were mainly driven by American Petroleum Institute (API) data showing a fall in US Crude inventories.

US Crude Oil stockpiles fell by 7.5 bbl in the week ended 21 June to 474.5-M, Crude Oil stocks at US delivery hub Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 1.3-M bbl.

Equities: Asian stocks dipped Wednesday after Fed officials tempered expectations in the markets for aggressive monetary easing.

Tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, Australian stocks dipped 0.15%, SKorea’s KOSPI shed 0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.6%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares sans Japan was a bit lower.

Currencies: .DXY rose 0.2% Wednesday moving off off multi-month lows. The Dollar Index Vs basket of 6 peer currencies stood at 96.177, holding to modest gains made Tuesday.

The index had bounced back from 95.843 on Tuesday, its lowest mark since 21 March following comments from the Top Fed officials.

USD was steady at 107.160 JPY after a rebound from 6-month lows of 106.780.

EUR was little changed at $1.1368 off a 3-month high a $1.1412.

Commodities: (quotes): Energy, Metals, and Agriculture Grains

Stay tuned…

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