There's nothing quite like a solar eclipse to capture the imagination and inspire a nation. Citizens in United States are still extremely excited and everybody here is talking about it, many of them with very sore eyes.
Today's Highlights
- Trump Tames the Stocks
- Oil Gains Erased
- Crypto Slide
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of August 22nd. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
The markets have been delightedly uneventful so far this week. President Trump seems to have a much better handle on things and the stocks and US dollar are responding by not falling.
The ousting of Steve Bannon was a good start. Then yesterday, Trump gave a televised speech with an important update on the startegy regarding Afghanistan. The speech was well put together and the Presdent seemed more Presidential than he has in a while.
Demonstrating that he's got a firm grip on the drivers wheel is enough to keep things from crashing for now. However, the markets have already priced in a lot of good news that hasn't quite been delivered just yet. So, if there's no major push towards tax or healthcare reforms any time soon, the markets may find themselves under pressure yet again.
Oil Coaster
Oil has been on a bit of a wild ride lately. The market range is low enough to not put any real pressure on other markets but large enough for day traders to get plenty of action.
We should know the backstory by now. The world is still recovering from a massive oversupply. Even though there have been efforts to tame production in the East, Western energy companies have been pumping their hearts out.
The moves we've been seeing lately are more speculative than fundamental though. The major battleground has been between $43, which is seen as a bargain for those who feel the price will recover, and $50 which is seen as way too high given the fact that we're still in oversupply.
Last Friday we saw a surge (circled), which has been corrected yesterday. Now it seems the price has recovered about half of that.
A trader with a good intuition for what direction an asset is moving can make some really great trades here.
Crypto Slide
When it rains it pours and there's a monsoon in the crypto space at the moment. Virtually all the gains from the past week have already been reversed. This is a gentle reminder that these markets are extremely risky.
Bitcoin and ethereum are both down more than 6% so far today and even bitcoin cash is in the red. Of course, every dark stormy night has it's moments of lightening that make the night shine.
Two such bolts have managed to bring outstanding gains to savvy alternative investors. One such flash of light is Monero. Rumor has it that XMR will soon be trading on one of the largest exchanges in the world, the Korean based Bithumb exchange.
Be that as it may, the gains are nothing less than phenomenal. The price of monero has nearly doubled in the past 24 hours and volumes have skyrocketed.
.. pushing it's market capitalization above $1 Billion for the first time ever.
The other sudden yet fleeting bright light is ripple. The gains in XRP are nothing new but quite welcome given the performance of the rest of the industry. It's a real shame that the move has been mostly reversed in the past few hours. You can only really escape your destiny for so long.
Here we can see the price of ripple over the last few days on top of a graph of bitcoin (blue line).
That said, the crypto markets have shown us before that some of the biggest opportunities have revealed themselves during times that all hope seemed lost. So certainly there'll be many people out there seeing these lower prices as a discount.
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Disclosure: 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.