Data due tomorrow is holding up the trading volume today as the long end of the treasury market remains within the bounds of the recent trading range . The claims number fell to 5 week lows and ADP estimate was 190,000 jobs created nationwide. All things considering it’s a pretty good performance by economy .The more important data points arrive on Friday morning. In addition the tax bill reconciliation between the House and Senate versions continues to be hashed out and details could leak out at anytime. There could also be news about ongoing budget negotiations as well. Stocks are slightly firmer awaiting same data the bonds are. The precious metal contracts are all under some more pressure as trend south action looks entrenched. These markets are having a bit of an identity crisis as Bit Coin and other cryptocurrency phenomena has stolen much of the interest they used to have. Looks like there’s a new alternative investment king and as long as that’s the case gold prices are apt to slip. Even the news about President Trump decision moving the U.S. Israeli embassy to Jerusalem and risking making Mid-East more unstable, if that’s possible, hasn’t supported these markets. A whole new generation of traders have their attention elsewhere and the big futures exchanges are playing catch up. Next week should prove extremely interesting as the CBOE contract for Bit Coin debuts followed a week later by the CMEgroup’s larger version.
