Markets & Investing
Didi Chuxing Newest Apple Battle Horse
13 May 2016
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
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