Dow rebounds and dollar starts to rise again

Wall Street has found fresh reasons to rally this afternoon after looking somewhat weak this morning, while the dollar is advancing once again thanks to a cautious turn from other central banks this week.

Wall Street pushes higher following better oil earnings

“When tech fails, there’s always old economy stocks like Chevron and Exxon to lift markets. Like their UK counterpart Shell, both these oil giants have posted strong numbers thanks to higher gas prices that have more than countered weaker oil prices. This has resulted in a recovery for US indices after a couple of disappointing days on the earnings front that seemed to point towards a renewed risk-off move in markets. But the refrain about weaker forecasts for Q4 refuses to go away, and will come back to haunt markets once earnings season begins to wind down.”

Dollar resurgence points to return of some old favourites

“The dollar is ending the week with a modest recovery, after a pullback that pushed the greenback to a five-week low. This week has seen the Bank of Canada, the ECB and the BoJ all dial back their hawkishness, leaving the Fed as almost one of the last major central banks still committed to push on with aggressive hikes. Combined with the better (or less gloomy) outlook for the US economy, it looks like traders have been given fresh reasons to buy back into the surging dollar.”