【TOP1 Evening】Bitcoin drops below $53,000, Oil hits $68! Gold eases off seven-week peak

Gold

Gold prices inched lower on Tuesday after hitting a seven-week high in the previous session, as a rebound in U.S. Treasury yields eclipsed support from a weaker dollar.

Spot gold fell 0.36% to $1764.45 per ounce, silver fell 0.33% to $25.171 per ounce by 18:00 (GMT+8).

"Gold came off Monday's high against a backdrop of rising yields. But the rise in yields didn't echo into the dollar. The greenback's soggy performance is supportive for gold," said DailyFX currency strategist Ilya Spivak.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields elevated above 1.6% after hitting a five-week low last week, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

U.S. President Joe Biden met on with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have all served as governors or mayors, as the White House seeks a deal on his over $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal.

Gold is seen as a hedge against inflation that could follow stimulus measures, but higher Treasury yields have dulled some of the appeal of the non-yielding commodity this year.

Bitcoin dropped below $53,000 on Tuesday.

Purpose Investments, CI Global Asset Management, and Evolve ETFs have all received approval to launch exchange-traded funds (ETF) in Canada that offer exposure to ether.

All three ethereum ETFs will begin trading on April 20.

"While bitcoin tends to get a lot of attention as it was the first major cryptocurrency, what ether and the Ethereum ecosystem represent is one of the most exciting new technology visions today in society," Som Seif, founder and CEO of Purpose Investments, said in a statement.  

Forex

The dollar dropped to its lowest in nearly seven weeks during the Asian session, while the euro rallied, as investors grew more optimistic about the pace of vaccine rollout in Europe and U.S. Treasury yields remained below their March spikes.

The U.S. dollar index fell 0.03% to 91.04 by 18:00(GMT+8).

The dollar has fallen so far in April as U.S. bond yields retreated from the 14-month highs touched last month. The moves are a reverse of what happened in the first quarter of the year, when the dollar strengthened as U.S. Treasury yields rose, offering higher returns on the greenback.

The euro was up 0.3% at $1.2065 - its highest in nearly seven weeks — after having passed the key $1.20 in the previous session.

Commerzbank strategist You-Na Park-Heger wrote in a note to clients that the recent fall in the dollar is due to the U.S. Federal Reserve's reassuring the market that it will not end its monetary stimulus anytime soon, while an improving vaccine situation in Europe is supporting the euro. But she said that the situation could rapidly change.

"The economic recovery in the U.S. might drive up inflation expectations further, fuelling rate hike speculation. The news situation in the euro zone in connection with corona might change again as uncertainty remains high," she said.

Some analysts said the support for the euro likely came from the announcement that the European Union has secured an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by BioNTech and Pfizer.

Versus the yen, the dollar broke the 108 level overnight, before reversing course, up 0.3% on the day at 108.450.

"USD/JPY is one G10 currency pair which has still not fully retraced the move higher from March when it started the month trading closer to the 106.00-level," Lee Hardman, currency analyst at MUFG, said in a note to clients.

The Australian dollar strengthened to a one-month high of 0.7812, helped by minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's April meeting which showed the central bank expects a faster rebound from the pandemic.

Crude Oil

Oil rose to $68 a barrel and hit its highest in a month on Tuesday, supported by a disruption to Libyan exports and expectations of a drop in U.S. crude inventories, although rising coronavirus cases in Asia limited gains.

Libya declared force majeure on exports from the port of Hariga and said it could extend the measure to other facilities.

U.S. crude stockpiles are expected to drop by 2.9 million barrels in weekly reports.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $63.981 a barrel, rose 0.77%, Brent was down to $67.155 a barrel, rose 0.73% at 18:00(GMT+8) on Tuesday.

"Follow-through buying is pushing prices further up," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. "But the immediate upside potential could be limited by the relentless march higher in infection rates."

Worldwide coronavirus cases have exceeded 141.7 million and a surge in infections in India, the world's third-biggest oil importer, has dampened optimism for a sustained demand recovery.

Stocks

Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Tuesday.    

Nikkei 225 fell 584.99 points or 1.97%, close at 29,100.38.

S&P/ASX 200 fell 47.80 points or 0.68% to close at 7,017.80.

Hang Seng Index rose 29.58 points or 0.10% to 29,135.73.

South Korea's Kospi rose 21.86 points or 0.68% to 3,220.70.

Taiwan capitalization weighted stock index rose 60.59 points or 0.35% to 17,323.87.

Europe stock markets opened lower on Tuesday, At press time: 

FTSE 100 Index fell 41.99 points or 0.60% at 6,958.09.

Germany DAX 30 fell 51.99 points or 0.34% at 15,316.40.

France CAC 40 fell 55.92 points or 0.89% at 6,240.77.

Tobacco stocks tumbled Monday on a report that the Biden administration is considering whether to cap nicotine levels in cigarettes.

The Biden administration is trying to determine if it should reduce nicotine levels in conjunction with a menthol ban or as a separate policy, the people told the Journal.

Nicotine doesn't cause cancer, but it does make smoking more addictive. The goal of reducing nicotine levels would be to make cigarettes less addictive, hoping to coax smokers to quit or switch to other products that are considered to be safer.

Strong sales and encouraging vaccination rates have helped retail stocks climb, and a JPMorgan conference included even more good news for the industry.   

Analyst Christopher Horvers boosted his price targets on several stocks Monday, writing that last week's event was marked by a "broad enthusiasm for the consumers' overall health and optimism seen via growing store traffic."

Warmer spring weather, more Americans feeling safer in public after their Covid-19 jabs, and the latest round of stimulus checks are all bringing more people into stores, and Horvers noted this trend is evident across geographies and categories—for both pandemic winners and more reopening-oriented plays. Retailers seemed little concerned about rising transportation and labor costs, and strong demand coupled with lean inventory should minimize discounting, he wrote.

"It's clear the boomer is spending again," he noted, highlighting benefits to Costco Wholesale (ticker: COST), Target (TGT) and Ulta Beauty (ULTA), and retailers that weren't worried about lapping the approaching one-year anniversary of the first stimulus checks.