【TOP1 Morning】Gold Rise, Bitcoin Boosts U.S. Stocks, U.S. Oil Closes Down

Gold: Spot gold rose on Friday

The strong dollar weakened part of the attractiveness of gold prices. In late trading in the US market, spot gold closed at US$1,847.50 per ounce, up US$4.48 or 0.24%. The highest intraday hit US$1875.66 per ounce and the lowest hit US$1839.50 per ounce.

Spot gold once broke through the US$1870/oz mark and hit a high of US$1,875.66/oz. It rose more than US$36 from the intraday low, but then fell sharply and fell and closed at US$1,847.50/oz. This week, spot gold closed down 7.96 US dollars or 0.43%.

COMEX gold futures closed up 0.5%, at 1,850.30 US dollars per ounce.

Spot silver closed flat at US$26.98 per ounce, after hitting a high of US$27.66 per ounce before continuing the 7% gain on Thursday.

The retail frenzy surrounding silver may repeat itself again, "because the market is small and does not require much capital," said Carsten Menke, an analyst at Julius Baer.

Forex: US dollar is firm

The dollar index was little changed on Friday, at 90.57. The index is up 1.53% from the three-year low of 89.206 touched on January 6.

The yen fell to its lowest level since mid-November last year as investors rebalanced their portfolios at the end of the month.

The U.S. dollar rose 0.50% against the Japanese yen in late trading, to 104.73 yen. It rose to a high of 104.94 yen earlier in the session.

Bitcoin was boosted after Tesla's Musk added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter profile. Bitcoin rose 2.2% in late trading to $34,300, and touched $31,990 earlier in the session.

As retail investors' aggressive purchases of certain stocks expanded to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin also jumped to two-week highs.

Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, said: "People are waiting for the arrival of new drivers. I don’t think we will see such factors until next month. The question is whether the correction of the dollar will continue or is over. I think There is no conclusion yet."

Crude oil: US oil closed down 0.13% last week

The two major crude oil futures closed mixed. As of press time, US WTI crude oil March futures closed down 14 cents, or 0.27%, to 52.20 US dollars per barrel; Brent crude oil April futures closed up 35 cents, or 0.63%, to 55.88 US dollars per barrel. This week, U.S. oil closed down 0.13% and Bursa oil closed up 0.85%.

According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), as of the week of January 22, crude oil inventories decreased by 9.91 million barrels, falling to the lowest level since March 2020. It is expected to increase by 1.5 million barrels and the previous value increased by 4.352 million barrels. ; Refined oil inventories actually announced a decrease of 815,000 barrels, an expected decrease of 500,000 barrels, an increase of 457,000 barrels from the previous value; last week crude oil exports increased by 1.104 million barrels/day to 3.355 million barrels/day, and domestic crude oil production decreased by 100,000 barrels to 1090 Million barrels per day; the four-week average supply of US crude oil products was 18.996 million barrels per day, a decrease of 4.4% from the same period last year.

Stephen Innes, a global strategist at Axi, said that investors are worried that the blockage of vaccine supply may lead to the implementation of travel restrictions in Europe for a longer period of time, which may be the most destructive culprit in strengthening the oil market's negative risks.

Stock market: US stocks closed sharply lower on Friday

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 620.74 points, or 2.03%, to 29,982.62 points; the S&P 500 Index fell 73.14 points, or 1.93%, to 3,714.24 points; the Nasdaq Index fell 266.46 points, or 2%, to 13,070.70 points.

U.S. stocks posted their biggest weekly decline since October last year. Investors are evaluating the impact of Johnson & Johnson's new crown vaccine test results, and the confrontation between Wall Street hedge funds and retail investors has increased volatility.

Johnson & Johnson fell 3.56%, becoming one of the stocks that caused the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. Previously, the company said that its vaccine had an effective rate of 72% in US trials and 66% in a large global trial targeting multiple virus variants. The two vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are approximately 95% effective in key trials. Moderna shares climbed 8.53%, and Pfizer shares rose slightly by 0.11%.

Focus on today:

23:00 (GMT+8): US January ISM Manufacturing Index

23:00 (GMT+8): US January ISM Employment Index