Forexlive Americas FX news: Fast break the other way. Stocks/Oil

The downside bleeding stopped in the stock market today after 5 of 6 trading days moved lower. Today, it was fast break the other way as the on again/off again fear-o-meter pointed to less fear today. That led to risk on flows.

• Stocks moved sharply higher
• Yields moved higher
• Crude oil rose by over 4%
• Flow of funds in the forex market moved into the commodity currencies led by the New Zealand and Australia dollar, and out of the safe haven currencies including the JPY and the CHF. The USD is closing mostly lower.

Starting with the stock market, the NASDAQ index and small-cap Russell index led the way with gains over 2.4%. The Russell index has been hit hardest over the last month or so with a decline of over 14.5% from its November high. So the rebound today of 2.95% is still a modest consolation but is nevertheless better than moving lower.

The NASDAQ index fell by about 8.34% from its high to the low reached yesterday, but rose by just over 24% or 360 points today to 15341.10. In the process the index moved back above its 100 day moving average at 15173. It’s 50 day moving average remains higher at 15471.03

For the S&P index, it rose by a respectable 1.52%, and in the process extended back above its 50 day moving average at 4613 after holding just above its 100 day moving average at the lows during trading yesterday (at 4525.44 today). The index is closing at 4649.22, up 81.21 points or 1.78%

The finally or the Dow industrial average, it held above its 200 day moving average yesterday at 34639.75 (the low reach 34665), and broke above its 100 day moving average today at 35231.93. It is closing at 35492.69, up 560 points or 1.6%

European shares are also sharply higher with gains over 1.36% across the board.

In the US debt market, yields were up around 7.8 basis point for the 10 and 30 year bonds before the 20 year note auction. However some solid holiday buying at the auction from both domestic and international buyers helped to move those yields lower into the afternoon session. Nevertheless the yields are still trading higher on the day across the yield curve.

The price of crude oil has been sensitive to the omicron news, and although case counts continue to move higher, and there are expectations for more spread over the upcoming holidays, today was also a day where the market eased it’s fear. Pres. Biden called on Americans to get vaccinated, and announce more vaccination and testing sites. He also said that come January, the US government would send out 500 million home Covid testing kits in an effort to slow the spread. The price of crude oil has been under pressure on expectations for lower demand. Meanwhile natural gas prices in Europe continue to soar for various reasons (see Adam’s post here).

Crude oil prices are trading up to dollars and $0.86 at $71.46. That’s a…