Oil Drops to 6^1/2 Month Low as Market Is Worried by Iran Deal

Asia Pacific shares rallied on Wednesday. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.45% at 3,292.52. Overall, the Singapore MSCI is down 1.70% at 301.55. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index is up 0.51% at 19,914.00. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 is up 1.18% at 29,190.00, while the Topix index is up 1.01% at 2005.50. South Korea’s Kospi is down 0.67% at 2,516.47. Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 0.31% at 7127.70.

Top News of the Day:

Oil bulls wish that Iran would just go away. In what appears to be another European surreptitiously U.S.-backed attempt to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, crude markets are faced with the probability of an additional 1.3 million barrels per day of supply coming on to the market, at a time when demand doesn’t seem to be all that great.

Market Summary as per 16/08/2022:

European equities Tuesday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded down 0.03% at 13,906.25, CAC 40 futures up 0.11% at 6599.98 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. up 0.07% at 7,541.34.

In the U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.71% at 34152.02. The S&P 500 up 0.19% at 4305.19 and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.23% at 13635.21, NYSE closes up 0.33% at 15846.78

Top Market News Today:

In the Forex market, GBPUSD flat at 1.2092. The USDJPY up 0.39% at 134.741. The USDCHF up 0.23% at 0.9514. EURUSD down 0.08% at 1.0162, EUR/GBP down 0.06% at 0.8402. The USD/CNY down 0.18% at 6.7757 at the time of writing.

In the Commodity market U.S. Gold futures down 0.01% at $1,775.58. Elsewhere, Silver futures down 0.18% at $20.087 per ounce, Platinum down 0.27% at $932.50 per ounce, and Palladium down 0.16% at $2152.00.

Crude Oil up on Wednesday; Brent Crude Oil up 0.19% at $92.79 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) up 0.08% at $86.66.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, Bitcoin at 24370.00 up 1.77%, Ethereum up 1.20% at 1902.00, Litecoin at 62.52 up 1.97%, at the time of writing.

Top Market Segment to Watch Out Today:

CITI GROUP: Citigroup (NYSE:C) said on Wednesday it has appointed Aveline San as the chief executive of its Hong Kong and Macau businesses. San, who has 25 years’ experience in banking, replaces Angel Ng, who was appointed Asia head of Citi Global Wealth in April.

In a statement, Citi said San joined the bank in 2019 as the regional compliance officer for Asia Pacific and had previously spent 14 years with UBS.

Economic News:

US: The U.S. government spared seven Western states from mandatory Colorado River water cutbacks for now but warned on Tuesday that drastic conservation was needed to protect dwindling reservoirs from overuse and severe drought exacerbated by climate change.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June had given the states 60 days, until mid-August, to negotiate their own reductions or possibly face mandatory cutbacks enforced by the federal government. Federal officials asked for a reduced usage of 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water per year, an unprecedented reduction of 15% to 30% in the coming year.

But bureau and Department of Interior officials told a news conference they would give the states more time to reach a deal affecting the water supply of 40 million people.

They instead fell back on previously negotiated cuts that for the second year in a row will impose reductions on Nevada, Arizona and the country of Mexico, which also receives a Colorado River allotment.

Eurozone: Britain has launched dispute resolution proceedings with the European Union to try to gain access to the bloc’s scientific research programmes, including Horizon Europe, the government said on Tuesday, in the latest post-Brexit row.

Under a trade agreement signed at the end of 2020, Britain negotiated access to a range of science and innovation programmes, including Horizon, a 95.5 billion euro ($97 billion) programme that offers grants and projects to researchers.

But Britain says, 18 months on, the EU has yet to finalise access to Horizon, Copernicus, the earth observation programme on climate change, Euratom, the nuclear research programme, and to services such as Space Surveillance and Tracking.

Both sides have said cooperation in research would be mutually beneficial but relations have soured over part of the Brexit divorce deal governing trade with the British province of Northern Ireland, prompting the EU to launch legal proceedings.

Top Economic Releases Today:

1. U.K. CPI (YoY) (Jul) today at 2:00 this time estimated 9.8%, previously which was 9.4%. 
2. U.S. Core Retail Sales (MoM) (Jul) today at 8:30 this time estimated -0.1%, previously which was 1.0%.
3. AUSTRALIA Employment Change (Jul) today at 21:30 this time estimated 25.00K, previously which was 88.40K.
4. RUSSIA PPI (YoY) (Jul) today at 12:00 previously which was 11.3%.
5. JAPAN Foreign Bonds Buying today at 19:50 previously which was 827.00B.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

GBPUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.2092, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.2060 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.2121

EURUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.0161, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.0121 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.0199

USDJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 134.742, TAKE PROFIT AT 135.454 AND STOP LOSS AT 133.862

USDCHF

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 0.9502, TAKE PROFIT AT 0.9469 AND STOP LOSS AT 0.9537

CAC 40

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 6582.00 TAKE PROFIT AT 6621.70 AND STOP LOSS AT 6554.70

WTI CRUDE OIL

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 85.88 TAKE PROFIT AT 85.62 AND STOP LOSS AT 85.91

GOLD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1775.55, TAKE PROFIT AT 1783.39 AND STOP AT 1771.14

LITECOIN

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 60.65 TAKE PROFIT AT 63.15 AND STOP AT 59.41