Last week’s shopping package
After the volatility we saw last week, with the ECB raising interest rates by 0.50% and the retreat of the US dollar eliminating the possibility of a 100 bps rate hike by the FED, markets turned their attention to the FOMC meeting this Wednesday. Everything was quiet yesterday with traders undecided on what positions to take outside of natural gas and crude oil, which yielded some good gains as geopolitics continued.
The most important economic data were Germany’s Ifo and Belgium’s NBB business climate indicators, which showed further deterioration, another sign of an imminent recession in the eurozone. Economists at IFO also acknowledged this fact, but the euro held up as traders awaited the FED meeting tomorrow.
Today’s information agenda
Today is another bright day in the economic calendar. In the early hours of the Asian session, we had the main CPI (Consumer Price Index) report from the Bank of Japan, which is under different control than the Western economies. In the US session we have the US CB consumer confidence as well as the Richmond manufacturing index. Both are expected to be weaker.
We opened several signals yesterday, after opening two since last Friday, although the price action was very slow yesterday and most of them still remain open. We closed four trading signals, three winning signals in forex and another in Ethereum, so we had a good day nonetheless.
AUD/USD Buy a signal
AUD/USD continues to be weak on the major time frame charts, but is rising to a more than one-week high as the dollar continues to retreat. My colleague Arslan saw a buy signal above the 200 SMA (purple) on the H4 chart yesterday when it turned into support and we booked a profit when the price broke out of this moving average.
AUD/USD – 240 minute chart
[[EUR/USD] – Sell signal
EUR/USD was also weak, but bounced back higher last week. Although, unlike the AUD, tbhis pair has been consolidating in a range, with a resistance zone around the 1.0260s. As buyers failed again in this zone, we decided to open a sell signal yesterday and closed this forex signal in profit when the price pulled back.
EUR/USD – 60 minute chart
Crypto currency update
Cryptocurrencies seem to have turned bearish again after trying to form a bullish trend last week. They pushed above resistance midway through last week, but have been showing some lethargy again over the past several days. Ethereum holds up better than others but let’s see how they do today.
can ETHEREUM Push above the main resistance at $1,700
Ethereum is showing some bearish signs after consolidating in a range for almost a month. Smaller moving averages like the 20 SMA (grey) have been acting as resistance above, but the first good attempt at $1,700 seems to have failed. [rice fell below the 50 SMA (yellow) yesterday.
ETH/USD – 240 minute chart
MAs Holding As Support for BITCOIN
Bitcoin has been making higher lows in the last several weeks and it is now making higher highs as buyers push the price above the resistance zone and the moving averages on the H4 chart. We opened two sell BTC signals last week, trying short this cryptocurrency at the top of the range, but both signals closed in loss as buyers remained in control.
BTC/USD – Daily chart