By IFCMarkets

US stocks rose on Thursday after Fed President Janet Yellen said that Fed remained on track to hike the rates in “relatively soon”. Janet Yellen also said she is determined to stay in her job for the duration of the current term under new presidency. US dollar index, a measure of a greenback’s value against a basket of six major currencies, added 0.5% to reach its 13.5-year high at 101.31 points. US economic data was also positive. They showed tightening of labour market and improving inflation which fuels expectations of higher economic growth in US in Q4 and supports the case for the rate hike. Traders are pricing in a 83% chance of December rate hike. On this news financials and banking stocks advanced and pushed the US stock indices up. S&P 500 index closed 0.47% higher at 2,187.12 with 7 out of 11 its major sectors closing in the black and financials leading the growth (+1.23%). Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19% to 18,903.82 while Nasdaq composite advanced 0.74% to 5,333.97. US stocks have been advancing since surprise victory of Donald Trump in US presidential elections as markets widely expect him to introduce new fiscal stimulus, cut corporate taxes, support national industry and increase infrastructure spending. US consumer prices showed record growth in 6 months in October while housing starts soared to 9-year high. Jobless claims slumped to the lowest since 1973. Cisco stocks fell 5.4% on weak earnings forecast in Q4. Wal-Mart shares fell 3.7% on weak earnings also. On the other hand, stocks of US major electronics retailer Best Buy soared 13% to more than 6-year high on positive quarterly results. Wells Fargo and Bank of America advanced around 2%.

European stocks advanced on Friday as stronger US dollar supported the export-oriented stocks. Volkswagen was the top performer among the automakers: its shares added 1.2% on positive corporate news. British stocks were declining on Friday as mining sector slumped. Metals dipped on stronger US dollar. Gold miners Randgold Resources, Fresnillo and Polymetal International lost from 3 to 6% each. British FTSE 100 rose 0.05%, German DAX30 added 0.21%, French CAC40 lost 0.21%. EURUSD went 0.08% up to 1.0631. STOXX EUROPE 600 lost 0.3%.

Japanese Nikkei advanced 0.6% to 17,961.41, its record high since start of the year as yen continued weakening against the US dollar. For a week the index rose 3.4. Broader Topix edged up 0.4% to 1,428.46. Dollar continued its rally on Friday having added 0.8% against the yen to a 6-month high of 110.925 (see USDJPY chart). In recent two week dollar has already advanced 7.5% against the Japanese currency. Hong Kong Hang Seng edged up by 0.4% on Friday to 22,344.21. Consumer goods and services were the top performers. Australian stocks closed in the black following the gains in Wall Street and hawkish comments of Janet Yellen. S&P/ASX index advanced 0.3% to 5,259.5. Financials were the top performers with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp up by 0.3%. Telecom stocks also advanced with Telstra Corp up by 2.6% on news the company is planning big cost cuts.

Brent crude futures rose to $46.76 per barrel today while WTI futures rose to $45.65 a barrel. The oil was advancing as OPEC proposed Iran to cap its output at 3.92mln barrels a day while energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Russia supported the oil freeze deal.

Gold prices fell on Thursday to their 5-1/2-month low of $1,210.73 as US dollar continued sky-rocketing. On Friday spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,211.67 an ounce while US gold futures for December delivery edged lower to $1,211.10. ilver lost 0.4% to $16.62 an ounce while platinum lost 0.2% to $928.49.

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