【TOP 1 Morning】Dow rises sharply. Gold and oil rebounded!

Forex : USD is flat, Bitcoin continues to rise

The U.S. dollar index hit a one-month low of 91.487 earlier on Thursday, then rebounded to 91.608, which was flat on the day; the euro fell 0.04% against the U.S. dollar to $1.1975. It hit a six-week high of $1.1994 earlier in the session; the dollar fell 0.23% against the yen. Quoted at 108.65 yen.

Bitcoin is close to the record high of $64,895 touched on Wednesday, and the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase is listed directly on the Nasdaq exchange on Wednesday. Bitcoin fell 0.12% in late trading to $62,910.

The U.S. dollar index was little changed on Thursday, and investors in the United States recorded the largest increase in retail sales in 10 months in March. This is a trade-off between the continued decline in U.S. Treasury yields.

The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday that retail sales increased by 9.8% in March, and economists interviewed by Reuters had previously expected retail sales to increase by 5.9% in March.

Another report showed that in the week of April 10, the number of initial jobless claims decreased by 193,000 to 576,000 after seasonal adjustments, the lowest level since mid-March 2020.

Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said: "This data combination is very positive."

However, the strength of the U.S. dollar is limited because U.S. Treasury yields hit their lowest in a month, reducing the relative attractiveness of the U.S. dollar.

Stock market: U.S. stocks closed higher

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 305.1 points or 0.9% to 34,035.99 points; the S&P 500 index closed up 45.76 points or 1.11% to 4,170.42 points; the Nasdaq index closed up 180.92 points or 1.31% to 14,038.76 points.

The US stock market’s Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 34,000 points for the first time on Thursday. It also set a record closing high with the S&P 500. The decline in government bond yields boosted the rise of technology stocks and strong US retail sales in March.

The S&P 500 index set a second record high this week, and the Dow broke the previous record set on April 9. The Nasdaq Index closed above 14,000 for the first time since February 16, and is currently less than 1% below the record closing high set on February 12.

S&P information technology stocks also set record highs. The S&P 500 index and the communications service stock index were boosted by large technology stocks, with Apple, Microsoft and Facebook rising 1.5%-1.9%.

Gold:Gold price rises

The price of gold rose to a high in more than a month, as the yield of U.S. Treasuries fell, prompting investors to buy gold to hedge possible future inflation risks.

Spot gold closed at 1,763.95 US dollars per ounce, up 27.52 US dollars or 1.58%, hitting the highest level since February 26 at 1769.66 US dollars per ounce, and the lowest hitting 1,734.22 US dollars per ounce.

COMEX June gold futures closed up 30.50 US dollars, the largest single-day US dollar increase since March 9th, or 1.8%, to 1766.80 US dollars per ounce, setting a new high for the main contract closing since February 25.

Gold prices briefly gave up some of their gains. Previously strong US data showed that retail sales rebounded better than expected in March, and the number of initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level since mid-March 2020 last week.

Specific data show that in March, US retail sales increased by 9.8% month-on-month and expected to be 5.8%. After experiencing a month-on-month decline of 2.7%, it rebounded, setting the largest increase since May last year.

Crude oil: rising oil prices

The two major crude oil futures continued their gains this week. As of press time, US WTI crude oil futures for May closed 31 cents, or 0.49%, to $63.46 per barrel; Brent June crude oil futures closed up 36 cents, or 0.54%, to $66.94 per barrel.

Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities, predicts that due to the good progress of the US vaccination program, strong demand for petroleum products, inventories are significantly lower than expected, and OPEC and IEA recently projected demand growth, which makes traders believe that OPEC + the next three months The increase in output will not change this year's situation where the market supply has become more tight. However, OPEC, Russia and other major oil-producing countries have a large amount of crude oil available for allocation to meet demand recovery, and soaring oil prices are unlikely to occur. It is expected that the upside and trading range in the next few months are limited, and the oil price in the second quarter is expected to be around US$63/barrel.

Today’s focus is on:

17:00 Eurozone core inflation rate annual rate final value (March)

22:00 The initial value of the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index (April)