The markets have been in bullish mood today and we’ve seen notable trading levels being broken. For instance the Dow Jones is now back above the 9000 level (at 9066) and earlier on the FTSE 100 closed well above the critical 4500 level at 4559, which represents a six month high.

These upward moves have been helped by better than expected earnings reports as well as some positive economic data from both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK it was announced that both retail sales and mortgage approvals were much better than analysts had forecast coming in at 1.2% and 35,200 respectively, whilst in the US existing home sales also beat expectations coming in at 4.89m.

In the other major markets the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are currently 46 and 22 points higher at 1972 and 976 respectively, whilst in Europe the DAX closed 125 points higher at 5247 and the CAC 40 closed 68 points higher at 3373.

On the forex markets the GBP/USD and EUR/USD pairs have been fairly quiet today, and currently trade at 1.6517 and 1.4207 respectively, whilst the Japanese yen has weakened quite a lot today. The GBP/JPY is now over 320 pips higher at 157.22 whilst the EUR/JPY (135.23) and USD/JPY (95.18) have posted similar sized gains.

Finally the price of gold is currently a couple of dollars higher at $955 whilst the price of oil is on the move again as it is up $1.43 to $66.83.

 

 

Filed under: Market News

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