Futures Fizzle After Oil Fades Bounce Above $48

It has been more of the same overnight, as global stocks piggybacked on the strong US close and rose despite the lack of good (or bad) macro news, propelled higher by the two usual suspects: a higher USDJPY and a even higher oil, if mostly early on in the trading session.

Yes, the oil squeeze higher continues, and as the charts below courtesy of Andy Critchlow show, Brent is now 82% higher in the past 82 days…

… while crude has had its strongest rally Brent is now 82% higher in the past 82 days.

However, after rising above $48 for the first time since October, crude finally pulled back modestly and was unchanged at last check while Brent was modestly in the red. This led to equities paring much of their overnight advance. In FX, in addition to the abovementioned spike in the USDJPY now well in the mid-109.50s, the other prominent mover was Australia’s dollar which advanced after central bank officials suggested authorities will hold off on cutting interest rates.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was still set for its third day of gains also following the crude jump above $48 a barrel. The British pound climbed by the most in four weeks as a poll indicated support is growing in the U.K. for the country to remain in the European Union. Investors got a reminder of the challenges facing central banks as a report showed U.K. consumer-price growth unexpectedly slowed in April. U.S. data on Tuesday are forecast to show inflation quickened last month. West Texas Intermediate crude was unchanged at $47.74. The pound was 0.6 percent stronger at $1.4486 and the Aussie gained 0.5 percent to 73.25 U.S. cents. US equity futures were unchanged after rising 0.3% around the European open.

“Markets seem to be in a relatively sweet spot with a steadily stronger U.S. dollar and resilient commodities prices,” Angus Nicholson, a Melbourne-based market analyst at IG Ltd., told Bloomberg “Many investors have been predicting a pullback in markets, but despite all the negativity, markets have continued to grind higher.”

Spot on: which is why to all those who are itching to short the market here, our advise is to wait for Gartman to go long first.

This is where markets were at this moment

S&P 500 futures up less than 0.1% at 2063.5

Stoxx 600 up 0.5% to 337

FTSE 100 up 0.6% to 6191

DAX up 0.1% to 9963

German 10Yr yield up 1bp to 0.16%

Italian 10Yr yield down less than 1bp to 1.48%

Spanish 10Yr yield down less than 1bp to 1.6%

S&P GSCI Index down 0.1% to 367.2

MSCI Asia Pacific up 0.7% to 127

Nikkei 225 up 1.1% to 16653

Hang Seng up 1.2% to 20119

Shanghai Composite down 0.3% to 2844

S&P/ASX 200 up 0.7% to 5396

US 10-yr yield up less than 1bp to 1.76%

Dollar Index down 0.04% to 94.53

WTI Crude futures up less than 0.1% to $47.74

Brent Futures down 0.6% to $48.68

Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,271

Silver spot up less than 0.1% to $17.16

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Looking at regional m,arkets, Asian stocks traded mostly higher following a firm Wall Street close where tech and energy surged after Berkshire Hathaway took a USD 1bIn stake in Apple and WTI rose to fresh 6-month highs. This saw the energy sector underpin ASX 200 (+0.7%) and Nikkei 225 (+1.1%) as WTI extended its advances during Asia hours to above USD 48/bbl, while JPY weakness further bolstered Japanese stocks. Shanghai Comp (-0.3%) underperformed despite the PBoC injecting funds through its Medium-term Lending Facility, as debt concerns continued to linger after Evergreen Holding defaulted on bond repayments to become at least the 10th defaulter in China YTD. 10yr JGBs traded flat with a lack of demand seen amid a positive risk tone in Japan, while today’s 5yr auction saw mixed results with the b/c slightly declining from prior although the lowest accepted price was higher than expected. Japanese PM Abe said the sales tax will be increased as planned unless a serious event occurs. PM Abe also commented he will make a decision at an appropriate time which will be based on expert opinions.

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European equities have been climbing higher this morning with Germany and Switzerland returning from their elongated break. Risk on sentiment has been supported by the continuation of the upside in oil prices in which Brent crude futures had sustained a move above USD 49/bbl for a large part of the morning. However, in recent trade prices have tailed off with WTI crude retesting USD 48/bbl to the downside.
Additionally, the upbeat tone has also been supported by the gains in Apple yesterday following Berkshire Hathaway announcing a USD 1bIn stake in the Co. As such, gains in equities has seen Bunds on the back foot. Alongside this, a slew of EUR-denominated bond sales is set to continue this week after near record amount of sales last week. Furthermore, as energy markets continue to climb this could continue to hamper fixed income products as markets inflation expectations adjust to the uptick in prices.