ActivTrades’ Market Analysts have prepared for Leaprate their daily commentary on traditional markets for May 15, 2019. See details below:
Forex
Despite the headwinds of escalating trade tensions with the US and domestic economic indicators falling short of expectations, the Chinese Yuan is finding support and is currently trading at 6.8695 against the US Dollar, almost 0.1% up on the day.
This counterintuitive behaviour originates from the markets’ sentiment, that the latest figures pointing to lower than expected retail sales and industrial production will apply pressure on Chinese officials to resolve the ongoing trading disputes with the US, therefore improving the future prospects for the Chinese economy, which in turn makes the Yuan more appealing to investors.
Ricardo Evangelista – Senior Analyst, ActivTrades
European shares
European markets dropped this morning, paring some of yesterday’s gains. This move is taking place following the disappointing Chinese Industrial Output release overnight (5.4% vs exp.6.5%), which underlies the impact of the trade war with the U.S. and raises concerns about economic growth. Investors are still trying to figure out whether risky assets are heading for more stabilization or not.
The uncertainty remains as most traders are now eyeing the next G-20 summit (28th-29th of June) with great attention and market volatility is likely to be on the rise ahead of this meeting. The Stoxx-50 index found support over the 3,305.0pts zone and is now trading slightly higher; the next support level could be found around 3,298.0pts and 3,285.0pts by extension. The worst performance is being registered by the Italian FTSE-MIB index, currently trading towards 20,760.0pts.
In Switzerland the SMI-index shows a similar technical configuration with prices trading towards 9.350.0pts despite a bullish opening. LafargeHolcim registers the best performance so far followed by Swiss Life and Zurich Insurance while the banking sector remains at the bottom of the board for this mid-week session.
Pierre Veyret– Technical analyst, ActivTrades