Precious Metals & Equities Continue to Rise
The markets are a sea of green today as the precious metals, crude oil, the euro, and equities are all shooting higher. In the overnight session, risk assets caught bids during the Asian session with China posting better than expected December trade data. Exports increased and China’s December surplus jumped to $31.6 billion, exceeding economists’ anticipation of a $19.6 billion surplus. Japanese equities also received a boost from a weaker yen in the wake of Prime Minister Abe’s pledge to halt their currency’s appreciation. On to the European and US trading days, the euro has appreciated 1.65% on the heels of poor US unemployment figures and commentary from ECB President Mario Draghi.
The precious metals are finally regaining their classic correlation to the USD. Gold broke decisively through its 200 day moving average and is trying to attract bids to break through short term resistance at $1,680. While it has stopped ahead of this level today thus far, if it can get through it, a bigger level of resistance is coming in at the Fibonacci figure of $1,693. Platinum continues to outperform gold but will have trouble overcoming the multi month high at $1,643.50.
