Cryptos and Commodities: Oil extends gains post EIA report, Gold weaker, Bitcoin higher

Oil Crude prices continued to climb higher after the EIA oil inventory report showed a bigger-than-expected draw.  US stockpiles fell 6.42 million barrels, more than the consensus estimate of 2.74 million drop or the yesterday’s API decline of 5.44 million barrels.  US production is crawling back, up 100,000 barrels per day to 10.1 million bpd.  Gasoline demand also dropped, but the aftermath of Ida and bad weather and beginning of school likely were behind that weakness. 

Risks to the upside for crude prices are not going away.  Oil’s rally is nowhere near over as both demand and supply drivers are still mostly bullish: further delays in making progress with the Iran nuclear deal, a cold winter, and further production disruptions from a very active hurricane season. 

It seems like it is only a matter of time before WTI crude makes a run towards the summer highs. 

Gold

Gold prices dropped after Treasury yields rallied following a surprisingly strong Empire State survey that growth might not be as weak as initially anticipated and suggests pricing pressures could remain near record highs.  In addition to solid US economic data, Canadian CPI increased 4.1% on a year-over-year basis in August, the fastest pace since March 2003, which was a big increase from the 3.7% gain in July. 

Earlier in Europe, UK inflation almost hit a decade high, which has some market participants anticipating a BOE rate hike in the first quarter.  As more advance economies see their central banks grow more concerned with inflation, the global punchbowl of stimulus will get a little smaller.  Gold’s bread and butter has been globally easy monetary policies and that is about to moderate, but over the next couple of quarters it could transition to an inflation hedge, but the timing of that will be tricky. 

For gold to avoid a selloff it needs to capture and stay above the $1800 level.  Gold first needs to see lower nominal Treasury yields before investors willingly come back. 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is rallying as investors digest a plethora of commentary from SEC Gensler.  Gensler is working on rules to oversee the cryptocurrency market, but expectations are mostly optimistic that the protections that will be put in place won’t cripple innovation and completely disrupt how the market operates. 

Fidelity reportedly urged the SEC to approve physically backed Bitcoin ETF in a meeting last week, which served as a remind that Wall Street is completely behind the world’s largest crypto.  Crypto interest is global and progress in Europe is also key to the next leg higher for Bitcoin.  The Eurex, a derivatives exchange owned by Deutsche Boerse, had a big breakthrough launching their Bitcoin ETN futures offering. 

Bitcoin is still in consolidation mode and will likely continue to consolidate around the  $45,000 to $50,000 level.

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.