Bitcoin crushed $9600 mark
Major week focus; OPEC, Fed, BOE stress Test
Merkel grand coalition continues
Good Bye Balck Friday, Hello Cyber Monday
Bitcoin Doesn’t Hold Smashing Record For This Year
There is only one headline which is worth looking at and grabbing the investor attention; Bitcoin smashed the level of $9500. A few weeks back, when the price of Bitcoin was trading near $8000, it became clear that investor would push this derivative toward the 10K mark given the strong demand global demand it has. Although a lot of noise and headlines are made by Bitcoin this year, however, it is Ether (another cryptocurrency coin) that holds the best performance of the year with over 5,500% gain.
The overall mood among European equity traders is not so positive as traders over in Asia didn’t pay much attention to the positive close on Wall Street or to any of the Donald Trump’s tweets about the tax reform. The sharp close on Wall Street on Friday was largely due to the fact that traders were making enormous bets about the Black Friday’s shopping enthusiasm amid shoppers. Investors are expecting mammoth number from the retailers on the back of this.
Over in Europe, the focus is mainly going to remain on central left Social Democratic Party SPD which has adopted the correct path in order to form a coalition with Angela Merkel. A vast majority of SPD’s member have shown their positive attitude over the weekend to reignite the coalition process.
It is mainly the political drama which is holding Germany back otherwise the economic numbers are showing solid performance. For instance, the business confidence that came out on Friday was encouraging. The upward trajectory for the Euro relies on the coalition talks and a more favourable outcome would push traders to move the euro higher against its major pairs.
This week has a particular importance for investors due to a number of key events unfolding which includes the OPEC meeting, Bank of England performing a stress test, the Federal Reserve coming in the spotlight and of course the US tax reform. Trump is going to get another chance to push his agenda as high as he can during his lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday and the voting outcome could come as early as Thursday.
It is Royal Bank of Scotland which would grab the most amount of attraction when the Bank of England would release its stress test result on Tuesday. This is because the bank had to sell its assets to shore up the capital requirements during the BOE’s previous stress test. The other two banks which would also be a matter of interest for traders are Barclays and Standard bank; both have resumed their dividend. The stress test would highlight if this was a right step for these banks and they are not getting ahead in order to please their investors.
OPEC: Russia and Saudia Arabia Hold the Key
Russia and Saudi Arabia hold the key when it comes to the upcoming OPEC meeting this week. The Russian crude oil production before the vienna accord was at 30 years high but since then it has dropped below 11million b/d. This shows the strong hand which Russia plays and without Russian intentions and its compliance, extending the unprecedented accord under which OPEC curbed its production output would be impossible. The soaring oil price has given much incentive to US shale oil drillers to strengthen their position as well, as a result, we have seen a strong evidence of an increase in the oil rigs which have come back in operation. Sadly, this week’s OPEC meeting would not have an endnote saying mission accomplished, in fact far from it. The cartel would extend the production cut further in an attempt to reduce the glut further.
