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A Brief summary of market movement this week:

 

Wednesday, May the 17th was the day when U.S. stocks felt the worst decline of 2017. The world’s top investors survived huge risks and have lost the amounts of money, due to reports that came out about President Trump, and the market movements which followed.

Observing the indexes, The Dow definitely had the worst story. Speaking of, it have lost 370 points, or 1.78%. While the NASDAQ ans S&P 500 also declined for more than 1,5%. The non so likable thing, is that the three most important U.S. indexes finished the week lower. In negative.

Gold futures 2% up

Meanwhile, investors have found their ”way out” of the bad Wednesday, relying on gold. And piling their money in safe assets.

Most noteworthy, the current political drama is happening in Washington. The President Trump’s bad branding which is forthcoming, put some doubts on his Politics, ideas and plans for the future steps.

Gold futures gained about 2% for the week. Which makes it the very best performance of this precious metal in 5 weeks.

 

Oil prices; real positive expectations

Speaking about the Oil prices, they were oscillating around 50$, gaining levels of 53.30 and a bit more, amid expectations that OPEC is going to extend the cuts. Crude futures followed the levels of 50$ at Friday’s close. The rising expectations  for OPEC to prolong the supply cuts is leading prices up. And it will have its greatest impact after May the 25th.

Noureddine Boutarfa  Algerian Energy Minister, said that all the ally OPEC and most non-OPEC countries support the output cuts. So they would likely impact the market, and push the OIl prices up.

 

 

Sterling hits highs  

 Thursday was the day when pound of sterling survived a mini crash against the dollar, falling to the level of $1.2888. This move was not so expected, because in fact it is not relied to any economic event. Or any important market data. But the dip in pound was very brief. As GBP/USD later recovered.

And reached the level above 1.30$. Which was definitely the highest since September. This impacted the markets, and the investors pockets, and later it showed that the UK retail sales went up more than expected in April.

 

The dollar drops

The U.S. dollar index fell by more than 0.70% on Friday.

The dollar shakes are the most important ones. Political drama happening in U.S. had affected the market during the week. It actually erased almost all the earnings brought by President Trump’s election. The economy is throwing a doubt on President Trumps ability to reform the policies. He promised to deliver the reforms on pro-growth economic agenda. Which is including deregulation in financial markets and the tax reform also.

 

Last week summary

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Sunday news:

  • China Manufacturing PMI fell to actual 51.6 (while forecast was 51.6)
  • Tomorrow is the International Holiday. Labor Day, May the 1st.

 

Last Week’s Trade

Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were highly up at the end of trading in Friday April 28, with aluminium the only one to see a decline in price.
After steady increases across the board during premarket trading in Friday, base metals on the LME saw little change as it heads in to a three-day weekend.
One trader said: “Things have been fairly quiet today and for the last few days, but it is starting to pick up as we head into May.”

Friday: Copper hit highs of 5,750 per ton and finished trading up $43 on Thursday’s close. Nickel bounced back from a decline earlier in the week with a price hike of $120 per ton, while tin sits just $100 shy of the $20,000 per ton mark.

“Over the past month, copper inventories [on the LME] have fallen over 16%, while zinc is down 9%, lead 8% and aluminium 6%. All have had recent supply disruptions which may have impacted this.” (ANZ)

“Base metals bounced overnight with volumes improving compared with earlier this week, although lead and nickel are the only metals to register above average turnover.” (Marex Spectron)

The exchange will resume trading on Tuesday May 2 because of the May Day holiday on May 1.

Copper price – upwards trend 

The three-month copper price rose $43 to $5,735 per ton at the close of trading.

“Copper is starting to look up. Much of the overhang of speculative longs has been sharply reduced; this means it can react to news as it comes in.” (Ole Hansen)

Copper inventories fell a net 2,775 tons to 259,728 tons. Major copper producers BHP Billiton, Freeport-McMoRan and Antofagasta lowered their production forecasts for 2017 amid operation disruptions.(Metal Bulletin)

BHP Billiton has cut its copper production guidance for the 2017 financial year again because of the 44-day long strike at its Escondida mine in the first quarter, following a 2% reduction on its guidance in the fourth quarter of last year.

 

Aluminium price falls

 

The three-month aluminium price fell $12.50 but remained above the $1,900 per ton mark. It finished trading at $1,911 per ton. Aluminium stocks fell again by 7,325 tons to 1,945,357 tons. Nickel is starting to recover from sharp declines earlier in the week. It rose $105 per ton at Thursday’s finishing and saw an increase of $125 per ton in Friday. Nickel’s three-month price finished trading $120 per ton higher than Thursday’s end at $9,450. Inventories for nickel slipped 30 tons to 379,644 tons.

Zinc saw an increase of $26 to $2,623 per ton. Stocks rose 875 ton to 349,050 tons. The three-month lead price rose $44 to $2,249 per ton. Stocks fell 125 tons to 165,275 tons.

 

The three-month tin price increased by $75 to $19,900 per ton – it has been fluctuating between $19,800 and $19,900 per ton over the past month. Inventories rose 65 tons to 3,015 tons.