Mixed session for global equities, oil gains on stockpiles data

Summary:
- Trump attack social media companies and Powell in an interview
- Oil surges on biggest stockpile drop since September 2016
- Mnuchin said that US-China trade deal is 90% complete
- NZD extends gains as RBNZ stays on hold
- European stocks finish Wednesday’s session little changed
- Bitcoin prints fresh 15-month high
- Gold, JPY and CHF drop as risk appetite grows

After cutting interest rates earlier this year the Reserve Bank of New Zealand chose to leave them unchanged at today’s meeting offering a statement suggesting that some rate cuts could be needed though. The RBNZ kept its main OCR at 1.5% as broadly expected, however, the statement and minutes offered some dovish stuff. Nevertheless, the New Zealand dollar is benefiting from the decision and is the strongest G10 currency today.

The US Department of Energy released its weekly stockpiles report at 3:30 pm BST. The 12.79 mb decline reported for the past week was the biggest one-week drop since Q3 2016. Both Brent and WTI surged in the aftermath of the release and reached fresh daily highs.

The US President, Donald Trump, took an opportunity during today’s telephone interview with Fox Business to once again attack Powell. Trump said that the chief of the US central bank should have never raised interest rates and that he only tries to show “how tough he is” by refusing to cut them. The US President said that Powell is not doing a good job and that he has the right to either demote or fire him. Nevertheless, he did not say that he would.

Since the start of 2019 Bitcoin has risen more than 200%. However, steep rally was not accompanied by a surge in Bitcoin-related Google search as it was the case back in 2017. It may hint that the ongoing upward move is fuelled by the institutional investors rather than retail traders.

Equity markets around the World saw mixed performance on Wednesday. Bears dominated the Asian trading hours with indices from China, Australia and Japan all moving lower. Major European indices finished the session little changed. However, French and Italian equities were clear laggards on the Old Continent. The first half of the US session is marked by gains with Nasdaq rising the most.