Relief rally overextended as skepticism grows on trade and growth

US stocks are poised for their worst week since December on trade worries and global growth concerns.  Yesterday’s news that the President Trump is highly unlikely to meet President Xi before the March 1st deadline intensified trade worries.  While expectations remain that we will not see Trump raise the tariffs from the current 10% level, concerns are growing that there will be a lot more hurdles before we can see a framework of a deal agreed upon.  Overnight, CNBC reported President Trump is expected to ban Chinese telecommunication equipment from US networks, in a move that will keep pressure on China to make concessions in the trade front, this was speculated over a month ago.

Dollar

Treasury moves are still leading the way for both equities and the US dollar.  Treasuries advanced as risk aversion remained the dominant theme for the end of the week, with the greenback gaining on safe-haven flows.  The Japanese yen also benefited with the flight to safety move and is trading strong against the high-beta currencies.  The week ahead will remain focused on trade talks, Brexit, corporate earnings, and US inflation data.

Wirecard sinks DAX

European bourses traded modestly lower as lower as DAX lead the move lower after Wirecard shares fell to the lowest level since April after Singapore police probed their offices.   Wirecard shares initially traded higher after they announced they will sue the Financial Times for “unethical reporting” on three articles that alleged fraud and misconduct on Wirecard’s accounting practices.

Oil

Crude prices are losing their bullish momentum as Europe appears more fragile than anticipated and trade doubts could signal a longer delay before we see a framework agreement reached between U.S. and China.  The biggest weekly loss in oil prices since December see further momentum if we continue to risk-off flows support the greenback. Oil remains vulnerable here as the OPEC + production cuts may have done all they can do to stabilize the markets and oversupply concerns will return in the warmer months.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s dead-cat bounce of 1% could be short-lived as the volatility drop could signal next major selloff is just around the corner.  The key range for Bitcoin now appears to be $2,000 to $4,000, with cryptocurrencies appearing to be vulnerable to the downside.

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

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.