Market Update – 17th January 2018 – Bitcoin Gets Whacked, While Commodities & The AUD Hold Gains

The Aussie dollar has moved very little overnight with the local currency more or less tracking at the same levels we saw about this time yesterday morning. However in the crypto world currencies and associated tokens took a hammering with BITCOIN the worst affected off a whopping 25% and now nearly 50% lower than highs reached at the mania stage of the boom way back on the 17th of December – BTC at one point was worth nearly 20,000USD per unit. The next key level for BTC to hold is 10,000USD but if it fails there it’s likely headed to 8,000USD before finding support.

Equities were mixed over night with U.S stocks taking a breather down about half a percent, while European equities fared better up around 0.3-0.5%. Commodities also remained resilient with the lower USD helping to support commodities prices.

Ahead today is Westpac Consumer Sentiment and Home Loans numbers at 10.30am and 11.00am respectively, these are both hardly market moving data however positive numbers here will certainly support a global shift in sentiment which suggests growth and activity is coming back.

AUD EXCHANGE RATES:

AUD/USD – 0.7961

AUD/GBP – 0.5773

AUD/EUR – 0.6492

AUD/NZD – 1.0944

AUD/JPY – 87.962

COMMODITIES: 

Gold – A$1681/oz

Silver –  A$21.62/oz

WTI – US$63.77/barrel

DATA RELEASES TODAY:

AUD – Westpac Consumer Sentiment T 10.30am