Originally published by Rivkin Securities
In a relatively uneventful session the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed slightly lower, down 0.14% and 0.17% respectively. The US producer price index (PPI) was released which came in right on expectations while the core figure (excluding food and energy) beat expectations by 0.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 had another positive close bringing it to a three month high and right into the resistance zone based on the trading range since late May. A rise in iron ore, copper and aluminium prices may help the miners move higher today despite ASX 200 futures pointing to a slightly lower open.
The bitcoin price surged above US$5,000 per coin overnight having now more than recovered the losses from the first half of September. This brings the year to date gain to over 500% and the three-year gain to 1300%. For now, bitcoin seems not to be suffering from the huge increase in the number of cryptocurrencies on issue with more so-called ICO’s (initial coin offerings) occurring on an almost daily basis.
US crude oil production dropped unexpectedly last week according to the weekly Department of Energy report. The drop was the biggest since September 2015 (excluding the drop caused by hurricane Harvey). Gasoline inventories are recovering after large drawdowns caused by the hurricane while crude oil appears to be resuming its downward trend in inventories which started in April. The rebalancing of the oil market has made significant progress over this time although there is still some way to go to get back to the five-year average.
Tonight the US releases CPI data which is one of the Fed’s main measures of inflation. At the same time, retail sales data will be released for the month of September with 1.7% growth expected. This would be a massive rebound from the prior month which saw a 0.2% decline.
Data Releases:
- US CPI 11:30pm AEDT
- US Retail Sales 11:30pm AEDT