The pound has stabilized after better sales data

The pound continued its appreciation against the euro after better-than-expected retail sales in the UK in July.
The British pound cut off its five-day drop against the single currency after it became clear that retail sales rose by 0.3% on a monthly basis, against an expected 0.2% growth.
The results become a reality day after it became clear that Britain's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1975, and salaries has seen higher than expected growth.
The euro fell by 0.2% against the pound to 0.9109 after adding 0.9% over the previous five days to Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the pound has stabilized against the dollar as well, trading at 1.2890 levels after having previously reached the lowest values of 1.2842 or levels unseen since July 12.

The euro falls after ECB meeting

The euro has fallen, along with European indexes since the last ECB meeting. It has been expressed by officials that the euro may be too "hot". US dollar futures fell and the dollar rose.
The index, tracking the performance of the major European companies - the Stoxx Europe 600 Index momentarily changed its direction of decline, but subsequently reverted to a negative territory.
Some market observers think the ECB may postpone its plans to end monetary stimulus and normalize its interest rate policy beyond September.
At this stage, the market predicts that this will happen at the forthcoming meeting in September. It was these expectations, which also triggered the strong growth of the euro against the dollar and other major currencies.

Same with the leading US indices

US stocks rose, and DOW Jones gravitated around the 22,000 psychological level, with technology and finance companies leading the market upward after weakening tensions between the US and North Korea.
Dow Jones Industrial Average added 144 points to its value to 22002 while the main push came from Goldman Sachs Group (+ 1.56%) and Visa Inc (+ 1.78%). For the index, the day ended at 21993.71 or by +0.62%.
The S&P 500 increased by about 1% to 2465.84 or around 24 points. All 11 sectors increased. The biggest ones were in tech stocks.
The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced by 81 points or around 1.3% to close at 6340.23.

The leading European indices on green territory

Stock exchanges in Europe began to grow as the geopolitical tensions between the US and North Korea weakened and so the markets were entirely focused on the performance of the companies on the old continent.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose by 1.08%, with all sectors closing the day on positive territory. The best performing sector was the bank's, which rose by 1.4% after the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.
DAX30 recorded a growth of 1.26% to 12165.12 points, and the British FTSE100 ended the session at 7353.89 points, with an increase of 0.60%. Shares of French companies also rose, with Danone's shares rising by 1.5 percent on the back of information that the company could be acquired. This led to a rise in the main French index CAC40 by 1.20% to 5121.67 points.

The bitcoin cracks $4,000

Apparently, nothing can stop the cost of the bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has overcome the psychological limit of $4,000 and is trading early Monday at about $4,050.
The digital currency reached the highest value of $4,125.17 on Monday, or an increase of 15% compared to Friday's levels. Optimism became a reality after the decision to move on to faster transactions by shifting some of the core network information and moving to the so-called SegWit2x standard.
This happens after separation of units - the bitcoin and the bitcoin cash, two weeks ago.
Since the beginning of the year, the bitcoin has risen by over 300%. However, this did not remove the fears of some suspicions that slow money-trading may be a major problem for the future of the currency.

Gold continues to rise, testing $1,300

Gold traded at its highest levels for over two months, continuing with its growth from yesterday. Investors continued to prefer secure assets to stocks, in the light of tensions between North Korea and the United States.
Still as a brake in front of the gold is the psychological limit of $1,300. Yesterday the noble metal halted its rise just below the level indicated.
However, if gold rises above $1,300, we could witness closing of short positions and additional purchases that quickly push it to the next psychological limit of $1,400 per ounce.

Dow with the 10th consecutive historic record

The Dow Jones blue chip index rose slightly yesterday, recording its 10th consecutive record-breaking level. The booming shares of Boeing, Goldman Sachs and Walmart have paved the way for the index.

Since the beginning of the year, the indicator has risen by 12%, and since the election of Trump for president, the growth already stands at over 20%.

Investors have focused heavily on strong corporate results and not so much on Trump's results after his first 200 days as President. According to market experts, this may continue in the future.

Oil with second consecutive day of fall

Oil reported yesterday its second consecutive daily downturn, with investors expecting details of the OPEC meeting that was discussing the offerings of the parties to the cartel.
US crude lost yesterday 22 cents, or 0.5 percent to a level of 49.17 dollars a barrel. Earlier this morning commodity futures were traded without substantial change at a level of $49.20, in an environment of increased geopolitical risk.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump posed a serious threat to North Korea in response to the provocations that had come from there.
Trump's comments, however, were enough to send the price of gold up, by about 1%, and to support the dollar.
And the appreciation of the dollar is not particularly good news for oil traders.
It is entirely possible that oil will encounter new serious difficulties in its test from current psychological border. According to technical analysts, if the level of 50 dollars remains in force, it may be that oil prices go down with full force.

The bitcoin with a new historical record of over $3,000

The bitcoin rose to a new historical highs over the weekend, overcoming the $3,000 psychological limit just one week after its split and the emergence of the new cryptocurrency - the bitcoin cash.
On Saturday, the cryptocurrency reached a momentum of $3,360.87 per piece, according to data from CoinDesk.com.
On Sunday, the bitcoin returned some of the earnings and traded at $3,286.87 with market capitalization of $53.4 billion.
This weekend marks the first time that the market capitalization of a bitcoin passed the psychological limit of $50 billion.
On the first day of the new week, the bitcoin traded steadily at levels above $3,000. Its value is $3,230.

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The demand for gold fell by 14% in the first half of the year

Gold demand declined by 14% in the first half of the year, following a sharp fall in index fund purchases, Gold Council figures said.
Central banks have also seriously delayed their gold purchases in the first six months of the year.
The good news for gold investors comes in the direction of strong demand in India and Turkey.
By comparison, gold-based index funds have grown by 30% in gold purchases for the first half of last year.
Gold is still very close to the upper boundary of a bearish triangle on a weekly basis at levels of $1,285. Breaking this limit may trigger a further strong appreciation for the metal.
The price of gold is also strongly supported by the depreciation of the dollar against other major currencies.

Oil falls again

Oil recovers from its recent losses and returned momentarily at trading levels of over $50 a barrel. The reason for this was the positive attitude among traders after worse than expected oil reserves in the United States for the past week.
US crude futures rose by 23 cents yesterday to $49.84 a barrel. Brent's October futures added 38 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $ 52.74 a barrel.
Rising crude prices, however, were not lasting, and it resumed its decline again, with US crude trading at 48.80 dollars a barrel earlier this morning.
So oil returned again over its 200-day moving average at $49.45 a barrel, which is accepted by technical analysts as a very negative signal for the future direction.

Bitcoin cash with a serious drop on Thursday

On August 1st, we witnessed the birth of a new crypto-currency - "bitcoin cash".
The new currency has not been able to impress the market participants, lowering on its second trading day, initiating growth for the bitcoin and the ethereum.
The cost of the bitcoin has stabilized since its recent decline, adding 3.5% to its value to trade at levels of about $2,767 on Thursday. At its current levels, crypto-currency has risen by over 150% since the beginning of the year.
At the same time, the bitcoin already trades with over 40% of its bottom below $2,000, reached on July 16th.
The cost of the new crypto-currency, bitcoin cash, fell by 30% yesterday to $439. However, it rose almost twice in the first 24 hours of trading. It still remains 15% above its value since the beginning of the week.

The Fed kept interest rates, slowing down the pace of increase

Fed kept interest rates unchanged, which was widely expected by analysts. However, what became clear from Janet Yellen's statement was that the reserve would likely slow down the pace of interest rate hikes.
What the Fed said about its record-breaking balance was that it would begin to decline "relatively soon". And though it is not clear when it will happen, according to market observers, most probably in the autumn.
The Fed's balance sheet has a record value of $4.5 trillion, and its reduction in practice will mean withdrawing liquidity from the market. Or totally opposed to the redemption of assets, which triggered strong growth for US indices.
The Fed started with its gradual rise in interest rates in 2015, and after just two increases to the beginning of this year, we witnessed two more this year. This led to interest rates between 1 and 1.25%.
Despite the rise in interest rates, the dollar fell against the rest of the major currencies. The dollar index fell by 8% since the beginning of the year.
Market participants are divided in two on whether we will witness another increase in interest rates this year. Half of the respondents are of the opinion that we will see another interest rate rise in December, while the other half think we will see no more increases this year.

22,000 points for Dow, traders are betting for a serious shock on the markets

 Dow Jones hit 22 000 and currently is sliding around that key level. The story is the same - new tops for US indices, or minor changes without the absence of more serious movements in either direction. This makes the market extremely calm and seemingly "sure".
Not in that opinion, however, are the traders. They are betting for a shocking event, at least when judged by trade in the volatility index. Traditionally, the VIX index is rising at moments of market shocks.
And bets on such events are the highest for nearly two years. This is in the middle of near-record low values ​​of the volatility index.
Investors turn to the historical performance of US indices and widely accept the idea of ​​an event that will shake the market.
In addition, they rely on the two  historically worst months - August and September - to repeat again and surprise investors. Especially in the absence of a more serious adjustment over the past few years.