- Oil slumps 1%, Delta optimistic on Q2 travel demand
- Gold less than $20 from record territory
- Ethereum rallies above $2,000 following Shapella Upgrade
Oil
It looks like the rally in crude prices has finally hit a wall. It was a busy week for energy traders with the EIA short-term energy outlook, Colombia’s global energy summit, the OPEC monthly report, and nationwide strikes impacting French oil product shipments. WTI crude couldn’t quite rally above the $83.45 level and traders decided that might be it for now. There was no strong catalyst for the oil price drop towards the $82.40 region as the dollar was steady and risk appetite was healthy as stocks extended gains. In fact, there was good reason to be optimistic about the short-term outlook for air travel demand following the Delta CEO’s comments.
The oil market looks like it will remain tight but if this profit-taking selloff is gaining steam, prices could still have more to give as this rally started from the mid-$60s.
Gold
Gold prices are surging here as cooling PPI data and rising jobless claims bolsters Fed rate cut bets. This could be the moment for gold (in dollar terms) to make record highs. Gold is a hop, skip and a jump from record territory and it might take a major retail sales drop and disappointing start to bank earnings for it to get there. If gold can rally above the current record of $2,075.47/oz, it might not have much difficulty targeting the $2100 level.
Cryptos
Today is all about Ethereum and its successful Shanghai Upgrade. It took more than a few years, but now Ethereum is fully Proof-of-Stake. Withdrawals are allowed but it doesn’t seem like any serious dumping is occurring. Ethereum is up 5.4% on the day, while Bitcoin has recaptured the $30,000 level, rising 1.6%.
