In December, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a crude oil stocks change registering at 0.405 million barrels. This figure exceeded expectations, which had anticipated a drawdown of 2 million barrels in the same period.<\/p>\n
The Forex market observed the Pound Sterling trading flat against the US dollar. Additionally, the EUR\/USD showed similar trends, remaining flat below 1.1800 ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting minutes release.<\/p>\n
Gold prices rebounded towards $4,400 after a significant drop of over 4% the previous day. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies saw Tron maintaining stability, with its value above $0.2800.<\/p>\n
Looking forward, economic forecasts for 2026-2027 in advanced countries appear promising, signalling potential strong performance. The crypto market in 2026 is expected to continue evolving, with regulatory changes and advancements in AI and tokenization playing a part.<\/p>\n
A variety of brokers are leading the Forex market in 2025, offering services such as low spreads and high leverage options. These brokers cater to diverse trading needs including those interested in trading gold or using specific platforms like the MT4.<\/p>\n
We are seeing a notable bearish signal in the energy markets following the unexpected build in crude oil inventories last week. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on December 26 that stockpiles increased by over 400,000 barrels, directly contradicting the market forecast of a 2 million barrel draw. This kind of surprise build often points to weaker-than-expected demand, which could pressure crude prices downward as we enter the new year.<\/p>\n
Trading volumes are thin, which is typical for the final week of December, but this can create a tricky environment where even small orders can cause exaggerated price swings. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is currently trading near 13.5, which is relatively low and reflects the current market quiet. We anticipate a significant pickup in volatility next week as traders return and digest the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting minutes.<\/p>\n
All eyes are on the release of those FOMC minutes, as they will provide critical insight into the central bank’s policy path for 2026. After a year of battling persistent inflation that has kept the core CPI above 3.5% for most of 2025, any hawkish language from the Fed could strengthen the US Dollar. This is a pattern we saw repeatedly during the 2022-2023 tightening cycle, where a strong dollar weighed on commodity prices.<\/p>\n
Given the surprise build in crude supply and the potential for a stronger dollar, we are positioning for potential weakness in WTI crude futures. A combination of a bearish inventory signal and a hawkish Fed would create a strong headwind for oil prices, which are currently hovering around $84 per barrel. Therefore, purchasing put options or establishing bear call spreads on oil-related ETFs could be a prudent strategy to hedge or speculate on a downward move in early January.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crude oil rose unexpectedly; markets steady as gold rebounds, crypto holds firm, and forecasts show promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}