Apple took a big shot at Uber, investing $1 billion in Didi Chuxing, Uber’s biggest car-hailing competition in China. Apple is no longer the most valuable company in the world. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, now has a higher market cap. Germany’s economy grew at its fastest pace in two years at the start of 2016 as spending domestically helped offset weakness in global trade. Gross domestic product rose a seasonally-adjusted 0.7 percent in the three months ended March 31, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said on Friday.
That beat the 0.6 percent estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The economy expanded 1.6 percent from a year ago. Volkswagen AG’s European market share narrowed for an eighth consecutive month since the German carmaker’s admission to rigging diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests, as BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz wooed buyers with sport utility vehicles. Volkswagen accounted for 25.4 percent of the region’s car sales in April versus 26.2 percent a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said in a statement Friday. Volkswagen’s four-month market share was 23.9 percent, the first time the figure for the period was below 24 percent since 2011. Industrywide European registrations in April jumped 9 percent to 1.32 million vehicles, outpacing the German company’s 5.3 percent increase.
Currencies
The USD/CAD pair extended its recovery from yesterday’s low and is now trading comfortably above the mid-point of 1.2800-1.2900 handle. The single currency has taken a hit following German releases, dragging EUR/JPY to fresh session lows in the 123.40/30 band. Currently, EUR/USD trades -0.17% lower near fresh session lows of 1.1353, finally breaking lower from around 1.1375 consolidation box. The main currency pair came under renewed selling pressure on the back of resurgence of US dollar demand as the European traders hit their desks. On the last trading session of the week, the USD/JPY pair sentiment remains muted with a slight negative bias ahead of today’s monthly retail sales and consumer confidence data releases from the US.
Metals and Commodities
Currently, both crude benchmarks trade in the red, with Brent down -0.62% at $ 47.79 while WTI oil drops -0.77% to $ 46.34. Oil prices dipped in the Asian session as markets resorting to taking profit off the table after the black gold climbed to the highest levels since November 2015. Thursday’s oil-price rally was triggered by EIA report showing that the crude oil reserves in the US shrank unexpectedly by 3.4 million barrels last week.
Currently, gold trades modestly flat at 1267, having posted day’s high t 1269.30 and day’s low at 1265.50. The bullion wavers in an almost $5 slim range and consolidates previous losses, finding support from worsening risk sentiment on the back of negative performance on the Asian equities and falling oil prices.
Source: Michalis Markides, Senior Analyst at OX Markets
José Ricaurte Jaén is a professional trader and Guest Editor / community manager for tradersdna and its forum. With a Project Management Certification from FSU – Panama, José develops regularly in-house automated strategies for active traders and “know how” practices to maximize algo-trading opportunities. José’s background experience is in trading and investing, international management, marketing / communications, web, publishing and content working in initiatives with financial companies and non-profit organizations.
He has been working as senior Sales Trader of Guardian Trust FX, where he creates and manages multiple trading strategies for private and institutional investors. He worked also with FXStreet, FXDD Malta, ILQ, Saxo Bank, Markets.com and AVA FX as money manager and introducing broker.
Recently José Ricaurte has been creating, and co-managing a new trading academy in #LATAM.
During 2008 and 2012, he managed web / online marketing global plan of action for broker dealers in Panama. He created unique content and trading ideas for regional newspaper like Capital Financiero (Panamá), La República (Costa Rica), Sala de Inversión América (Latinoamérica) and co-developed financial TV segments with Capital TV.
He is a guest lecturer at Universidad Latina and Universidad Interamericana de Panamá an active speaker in conferences and other educational events and workshops in the region. José Ricaurte worked and collaborated with people such as Dustin Pass, Tom Flora, Orion Trust Services (Belize) and Principia Financial Group.
