Oil creeps higher, gold paring losses, bitcoin consolidates

Edging higher but growth concerns remain

Oil prices are nudging higher after paring recent gains so far this week. There are two dominant forces in the oil market at the moment; the economic outlook being the primary downside risk and OPEC+ the upside. The latter reasserted itself last week with the two million barrel per day cut (much less in reality, of course) but growth fears are still dominating in the markets which may stop the price from taking off. We could also see further coordinated action from consuming countries on the SPR after a frustrated response – to put it mildly – to the alliance’s output cut.

Paring losses but optimism running thin

Gold is edging higher amid a slight softening in the dollar and marginally lower yields. I’m not sure anyone is getting too excited by today’s rebound but coming after a week of declines, we may just be seeing some profit-taking ahead of the Fed minutes and inflation data. They will be the core focus for gold traders over the next 36 hours and given the response in the markets over the last week, they don’t appear overly optimistic.

Remains in consolidation

Bitcoin is seeing small gains on Wednesday, with the cryptocurrency up less than 1% and still holding above $19,000. While the overall trend in recent days has been lower, the moves have been relatively mild and look more consolidatory than anything more worrying. The longer trend of consolidation around $20,000 remains intact which is the most important thing. Whether that will be the case at the end of the week, much like elsewhere, will depend on the Fed minutes and inflation data.

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