Optimism buoys FTSE & oil

Chris Beauchamp IG

The FTSE 100 is pushing steadily higher this morning, while oil prices have rallied once again.

Indices chip away at Wednesday’s losses
Gold and silver miners in high demand
Oil surges on hopes of OPEC deal

Stock markets have continued their gradual recovery from the panic of Wednesday’s session, with the FTSE 100 now less than 1% from its all-time high. Still, tensions persist, as evinced by the US 10-year yield, which dropped below 2.2% this week. It has recovered a little since then, but with gold ticking higher after a retracement yesterday all the signs of a classic ‘risk-off’ move are present. The solid performance of precious metals has meant that the likes of Fresnillo have been seen near the top of the index on a regular basis this week, but further US dollar weakness and worries about the Washington situation should mean that there is more upside to come here.

The concerted push to keep oil moving higher goes on, with the price of WTI touching its highest level in almost a month. The risk here of course is that any fresh deal from OPEC will not live up to either the hype or the bullish positioning seen among investors. Any drop back below $50 would be a very bearish development, but we’ll probably have to wait until after the event to see this occur. Ahead of the open, we expect the Dow to start at 20,700, up 37 points from last night’s close.

Author

Chris Beauchamp

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