Gold and silver are trading flat leading into the European open
London (Jun 29) Gold and silver are trading flat this morning leading into the European cash open. Gold has been very choppy for the last seven sessions since the post FOMC drop trading within a range between $1761.04/oz and $1797.21/oz. Silver has been pretty similar and has just retaken the $26/oz level and it looks like decision time. In the rest of the commodities complex, copper has moved -0.73% lower and spot WTI trades flat after falling 1.65% on Monday.
Risk sentiment was pretty poor overnight as the Nikkei 225 (-0.81%), Shanghai Composite (-0.84%) and ASX (-0.08%) all traded lower. It was interesting as the Nasdaq in the U.S. made another all-time high leading into the Asian open. Futures in Europe are pointing towards a slightly positive cash open.
In the FX market, the major pairs were very rangebound. The dollar index trades 0.04% higher and the biggest mover was NZD/USD which fell 0.13%. In the crypto space, BTC/USD trades just 1% higher.
Looking at the major news leading into the session, further lockdowns were announced in Australia. This time Brisbane, Perth and Peel have been placed in lockdown as the delta variant case count increased in the nation.
The RBNZ said that monetary assistance is still required for economic recovery but added that monetary settings can eventually be normalized.
RBNZ's Orr says the nation's economic activity is returning to pre-pandemic levels.
UK June Nationwide house prices +0.7% vs +0.7% m/m expected.
Japanese April retail sales -0.4% m/m (prior -4.5%).
Japanese unemployment rate 3% vs expected of 2.9% for May.
Crypto exchange Binance closes its operations in Ontario (Canada). This comes after a separate story that noted U.K. customers were frozen out of payment withdrawals due to some kind of U.K. payment restrictions.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest files to create a Bitcoin ETF.
Both Fed's Barkin and Quarles said that they expect the rise in inflation to be temporary.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include German regional CPI's, BoE lending data, EZ services & industrial sentiment, U.S. CB consumer confidence and weekly oil API's. We could also hear from ECB's Lagarde, Weidmann and German Buba's Mauderer.
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