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Brent futures (a contract for the future delivery of oil, the world's main price benchmark) closed Friday, October 23, at $116.72 a barrel - up $3.55, or 3.14%. This is the highest settlement level since April 29, and oil gained about 6% over the week.
From October 19 to 23, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US (exchange-traded funds through which Bitcoin is bought like an ordinary stock) attracted $304.73 million, although $635.49 million was withdrawn from them on Wednesday alone. Ethereum funds closed the week with an outflow of $220.6 million.
On Saturday, Bitcoin fell below $80,000 for the first time since October 15 and in four hours wiped out $404.15M in long positions (bets on price increases) — that's 93% of the total $436.44M in liquidations. Over 24 hours, the market forcibly closed $815.26M across 201,012 traders.
On Saturday, October 24, BTC lost 2.2% in a day and dropped to $79,700 - its weakest level in more than a month. The reason is not market-related: Washington is urgently evacuating embassy and military base personnel from the region.
Gold fell below the round mark of $4000 per ounce for the first time since July, dropping to $3,986.85. The decline followed the collapse of US technology stocks: investors sold the metal to cover margin calls on other positions.
On Thursday, October 22, the Nasdaq Composite closed at 26,008.86 - down 694 points, or 2.6%. The main blow fell on chipmakers: the Philadelphia Semiconductor sector index plunged 6.72%.
On Friday, October 23, at the start of the US session, BTC plunged to $80,988 - the low of the day. At the same time, Brent crude jumped about 3% to $116 per barrel, for the first time since March 19, and US stocks closed the week in the red.
On Friday, the USD/CAD pair fell below the psychological level of 1.4000 and traded around 1.3975 - a one-month low. This is the seventh consecutive losing session for the US dollar against the Canadian dollar, and the second week of decline in a row.
S&P Global released preliminary US business activity indices for October today at 16:45 MSK. The indices themselves cooled slightly, but companies' selling prices are rising at the fastest pace in more than four years - and that's a week before the Fed meeting.
On October 23, Brent crude passed two round marks in a matter of minutes: at 16:49 Moscow time the price went above $115, and already at 16:58 Moscow time - above $116. The reason - a sharp escalation of rhetoric around Iran.
In the early hours of Friday, gold (XAU/USD) fell to $3,986 - below $4,000 for the first time since July. Before that, on Thursday, the metal lost 2.81% over the session. By midday the price had rebounded to $4,029, but gold is closing the week down more than 3%.
The preliminary business activity indices for October came in above forecasts across all three sectors, yet the pound barely gained against the dollar - but it pushed the euro to a 17-month low.
The US President invoked the Defense Production Act - a 1950 act passed during the Korean War. The American oil industry has been officially declared vital to national defense, and this opens a direct path for the Pentagon to finance its development.
On Thursday, October 22, XAU/USD lost more than 2% and dropped to $4,047, and in the Asian session on October 23 it reached **$3,986.74** - the lowest level in three months. The $4,066.64-$4,227.90 corridor, in which the metal had traded for three weeks since the start of October, was broken to the downside.
On Thursday Brent rose 2.6% to $111.66 per barrel - a five-month high, and in the evening Moscow time quotes went above $113. The rally was driven by Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure and expectations of a new military escalation around Iran.
September consumer price data was released at 02:30 Moscow time and came in above August levels across all measures. The yen strengthened, and the market is once again betting on a Bank of Japan rate hike in December.
On October 22, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds showed the largest daily outflow in several months, according to data from the analytics service SoSoValue. The data was published on the morning of October 23 at 07:42 Moscow time.
Statistics Canada reported for September: Canadian industry selling prices rose 2.0% from August versus 1.3% a month earlier. The data were released on October 22 at 15:33 Moscow time - six days before the Bank of Canada meeting.
The American broker Robinhood (traded on Nasdaq under the ticker HOOD) has officially received approval from Dubai authorities to launch cryptocurrency trading. This opens the door for the company to enter the Middle East market.
US trading on October 22 opened with a decline, and by 17:27 Moscow time the Nasdaq 100 index had fallen by about 2%. The day before, the same index closed almost unchanged, and after the market close it was up about 1% on futures - the reversal was sharp.
GMO Internet's cloud hosting, where traders keep MetaTrader terminals and trading robots, was hacked. Broker OANDA Securities Japan postponed client payouts on October 22 to check applications for fraudulent transfers.
Yemen's Houthi movement said on October 22 that it had struck King Fahd Airport in Dammam, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense building and another Saudi Aramco facility. Following this, Saudi Aramco (the world's largest oil company and Saudi Arabia's state company) ordered the evacuation of personnel from its headquarters in Dhahran and their transfer to remote work.
