Fed minutes & OPEC keep markets in check

Chris Beauchamp IG

US markets are tiptoeing higher ahead of this evening’s Fed minutes, while in London the mining sector has recovered from early losses.

Session looks to bore investors into submission
Moody’s downgrade fails to have much impact
OPEC meeting overshadows big US oil drawdown

‘Off the lows’ is about the best that can be said of a very dull session in London. Little did we know that the initial excitement of the day would fade within minutes, to be replaced with aimless drift. We are back above 7500 on the FTSE 100, while US markets are moving higher once again, but the moves on Wall Street remain tentative while investors wait for the latest set of Fed minutes. Moody’s downgrade of China might have been a decent catalyst for a sell-off, but as with Mnuchin’s ostensibly worrying comments yesterday, the market has taken one look at the news and simply shrugged its shoulders. Even the miners, which were hard hit this morning, have improved their position. For the
time being, we are still stuck with a market that doesn’t want to go down, but it doesn’t want to go up, either.

US crude stockpiles dropped by an impressive 4.4 million barrels last week, according to data released this afternoon. While the news did cause a spike in the price of crude, traders then remembered that the OPEC meeting is tomorrow and reversed course. Now we all wait for OPEC, although tomorrow’s schedule suggests that we have a whole day ahead of us before OPEC announces its decision to the world.

Author

Chris Beauchamp

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