US Jobless Claims

By AT Partnerships | Posted 10 Oct 2014

Thursday’s trading news comes down to a simple explanation; Stocks and commodities tumbled around the globe!

The Dow lead the way in losses in the US. European markets worried about a softening European economy that could be trouble for US earnings down the road. The Dow fell 1.97%, S&P 2.07%. Volatility action was up 24%. The catalyst was German exports down a disappointing – 5.8%, Germany being the dominant driving force of economic activity in the Euro Zone. Great Britain’s FTSE and Germany’s DAX Markets also suffered some late weakness with the DAX sitting on 8916.00.

What happened to currencies: the big three; US Dollar, the Euro, and the Yen? A late surge in the US session actually strengthened the mighty US Dollar against most currencies on upbeat US jobless claims as comments from Draghi pushed the Euro lower bolstering the Greenback’s appeal to investors. The only currency to dent the US Dollar was the Japanese YEN as they had some good data in manufacturing orders that was higher than expected.

Gold and Silver have seen demand surge into the market this week with some nice gains and on Thursday during the Asian and European session the “up” momentum was still there, but when US investors stepped up to the plate for their turn to bat, things changed in quick fashion and prices quickly reversed with most of the previous gains of the day wiped out. Overall Gold did still manage to finish the day slightly up from the Asian opening which means that there is a 4 day price gain in Gold this week.

Since Tuesday of this week Oil has seen a massive drop in price, a $6.00 move down (WTI), to $84.32, the lowest price since April 2013, a 17% haircut. Oil price is simply at the whim of supply and demand, so obviously the supply is there as US OIL production has increased to an amazing 7.8 – 10 million barrels a day. The United States stands as the third largest Oil producer in the world with only Saudi Arabia and Russia ahead of them. China and the US are the greatest consumers of Oil. These stats are from 2013, therefore slight variations are most probable.