Overnight on Wall Street: Tuesday 16 March 2021

Equity markets

US Equity markets rallied in a whipsawing and directionless session, as investors juggled optimism in the economy against steadily rising Bond yields. Retail sales figures tonight and a Fed meeting later in the week will be closely watched to gauge the strength of the economic recovery and future stimulus.

The Dow and S&P 500 again hit record highs with the NASDAQ rebounding to be the best performing index on the day.

•         Dow Jones up 175 (0.53%)
•         NASDAQ up 140 (1.05%)
•         S&P 500 up 25 (0.65%)
•         Russell 2000 up 7.38 (0.31%)

Source: Yahoo Finance

FX markets

With bond yields continuing to climb the US Dollar Index continued its rally after a mid-week drop last week. FX traders will be looking to the FOMC rate decision and statement on Thursday to see how the Fed addresses this recent rally in yields.

Source: ycharts.com

Source: GO MT4

AUDUSD

After a rally last week on a dip in the US, the AUSUSD again found resistance at the US 0.78c level. With the exception of a couple of false breakouts, the AUDUSD has seemed happy trading in the 0.76 – 0.78 trading range that it has established this year to date.

Source: GO MT4

Gold

Despite US dollar strength in the last two sessions, Gold continues to grind its way upward from the support level of around 1675. Rising bond yields have raised the spectre of inflation which gold, traditionally seen as an inflation hedge, has benefitted from.

Source: GO MT4

Bitcoin

After gapping up on the Monday open above the $60k level, its highest level ever, Bitcoin sold off during the session, filling the gap to currently be trading around the $55k level.