Oil rises on promising Chinese data
Oil prices are rising on Monday, up more than 1% early in the European session.
The Chinese PMI data overnight is giving crude prices a nice lift, with the services PMI in particular offering encouraging signs. China is living a very different reality to the rest of us and that is evident in the data, with the services PMI rising to 55.2 but the manufacturing reading slipping to 51.
Domestic demand is keeping things ticking over nicely while the rest of the world contends with gradual reopenings – and setbacks that come with it – and travel restrictions. Brent and WTI are pushing their 200 day simple moving averages at the moment as the gradual price recovery continues. A close above here on a weekly basis could make things interesting.
Gold steady as USD tests its lows
Gold is a little flat today after bouncing strongly in Friday’s session as the dollar sunk back to its August low.
The promise of low rates for a very long time not only gets equity investors excited, bond investors quite enjoy those soothing tones as well. Yields on the 10-year remain a little off their lows but with inflation expectations now rising, real yields fell back below -1% on Friday and took the dollar down with them.
This remains a very nice environment for gold, although it continues to look jittery in the short term. August was a wake-up call for gold traders, markets don’t move in straight lines. A move back above $2,000 should get them back on board though.