Oil Surges 3% on Middle East Tensions; Gold Hits One-Week High as Wall Street Remains Cautious – APM Capital Market Report

• Marc Pussard, Head of Risk, APM Capital

Commodities

Oil prices jumped by more than 3% on Monday, rising for a fifth consecutive session on expectations of a widening Middle Eastern conflict that could tighten global crude oil supplies.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures settled higher at $82.30 a barrel, gaining $2.64, or 3.3%, its biggest percentage gain for a single trading session this year. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled at $80.06 a barrel, up $3.22, or 4.2%. 

Gold prices rose to a one-week high on Monday as investors looked forward to a key inflation report that could shed more light on the U.S. central bank’s next policy move. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $2,435.33 per ounce, and US gold futures were flat at $2,474.20.

US market

Wall Street stocks closed mixed on Monday as investors braced for a slew of U.S. economic data this week, especially consumer prices, to gauge the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell. The benchmark S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index closed higher.

The S&P 500 gained 1.63 points, or 0.03%, to end at 5,345.79 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 35.71 points, or 0.21%, to 16,781.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 137.00 points, or 0.35%, to 39,360.54.

European market

European stocks showed little direction on Monday. The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down 0.11 points, or 0.02% to finish almost flat at 499.08.

France’s CAC 40 lost 19 points, or 0.26%, to end the session at 7,250. Germany’s DAX on the other hand gained three points or 0.02% to close at 17,726. Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 146 points, or 0.46%, to end at 31,928. Spain’s IBEX 35 added seven points, or 0.07%, to finish at 10,646. The UK’s FTSE 100 was the best performer of the day rising 42 points, or 0.52%, to end the day at 8,210.

Asian market

Asian shares were mostly higher in a mostly calm trading on Monday ahead of big reports this week on the state of the U.S. economy.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher, to 17,108.28 and the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.1% to 2,858.20. Markets in Tokyo and Bangkok were closed for holidays.

In Seoul, the Kospi jumped 1.2% to 2,618.30, as shares in Samsung Electronics gained 1.1%, tracking advances in Big Tech companies late last week. Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 1.4%, as computer chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. added 0.6% and electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Electronics, also known as Foxconn surged 4.5%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 7,813.70.

Forex

The U.S. dollar was almost flat in late trading on Monday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, went up 0.01 percent to 103.140.

The euro added to 1.0930 U.S. dollars from 1.0919 U.S. dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.2769 U.S. dollars from 1.2757 U.S. dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 147.30 Japanese yen, higher than the 146.62 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.8653 Swiss francs from 0.8647 Swiss francs, and it advanced to 1.3735 Canadian dollars from 1.3733 Canadian dollars.

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