Market Drivers – Asian Session 21-10-2021

Japan’s Nikkei index fell nearly 2% at the close of today’s session, pressured by fresh concerns about China’s Evergrande ahead of a general election and concerns about the impact of rising costs on the future of companies.

The Nikkei index closed down 1.87% at 28,708.58 points, while the broader Topix index lost 1.13 percent and went down to 2000.81 points.

Risk appetite makes it difficult for the dollar to find demand during the second half of the week. Still, rising Treasury yields continue to support the greenback and limit losses against major competitors. The dollar index settled above 93.50. Market awaits US jobless claims and existing home sales intraday.

Brent crude futures lost 54 cents, or 0.6%, to $85.28 a barrel, after early gains that took the benchmark to its highest level since October 2018. It rose 0.9% the previous day.

For December, US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 33 cents, or 0.4%, to $83.09 a barrel. US crude contracts for November, which expired on Wednesday, settled, up 91 cents, or 1.1%, after touching the highest level since October 2014 earlier in the session.

Spot gold rose 0.1 percent to $ 1782.70 an ounce, and US gold futures rose 0.1 percent to $ 1786.40, and bullion prices were traded between $ 1748 an ounce and $ 1800 an ounce

Bitcoin broke out beyond its previous all-time high to reach $67k, following the successful launch earlier this week of the first-ever Bitcoin ETF.

China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Washington and Beijing should work together to create conditions for implementing the phase one trade deal.

“China’s goods imports from the US have only reached about 53% of the $200 billion worth of additional products and services it promised to buy under the trade deal signed last year.”

Bloomberg report earlier.