The Nikkei 225 has fallen sharpy towards (yet held above) the September low. A small bullish hammer formed on Thursday to show a loss of bearish momentum, alongside a false break of trend support. A bullish engulfing candle formed on Friday and closed above the 100 and 200-day EMA's. Its low also respected a 50% retracement level and closed back above trend...
The SNB (Swiss National Bank) are expected to hike interest rates tomorrow, which would send their rate above zero for the first time since 2011. The central bank entered ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) between 2011 – 2015 before switching to NIRP (negative interest rate policy) with a rate of -0.75%, where it remained until June this year. And with seemingly...
The RBA are expected to hike interest rates by 50bp at 14:30 today and take the cash rate to 2.85%. From here we suspect they’ll revert to 25bp hikes with the potential to pause in December or January. The Aussie remains within an established downtrend and within a wider bearish channel on the 4-hour chart. It appears it is within the third wave of a 3-wave...
The British pound suffered a flash crash yesterday as Asian traders reacted to the UK’s mini budget, which many suspect will exacerbate inflation and increase debt. Some are already calling for a vote of no confidence for PM Truss. GBP/USD hit a record low before rebounding over 5% and GBP/JPY saw levels of volatility not seen since Brexit. And these levels of...
Many traders across Asia will be looking at their spot gold charts today after its solid close beneath the 2021 low. Such moves can spark another round of selling as investors flea for the exit. But before gold speculators decide to go 'all in' at these lows on spot gold prices, I suggest you also look at the gold futures chart if trading over the near-term...
As markets are still reeling from the US inflation report, a hotter than expected CPI set for the UK could simply add to the panic. At least to a degree. The difference here though is that inflation is expected to rise (as opposed to soften like in the US) but in the current climate, a hotter than hot report could add further pressure to equity markets. Core...
Recent price action on gold appears to be corrective, given the overlapping natures of the swings and choppy trading conditions as it grinds higher. The retracement has stalled around the 38.2% Fibonacci level and weekly R1 pivot point, and a two-bar bearish reversal formed at the resistance zone to suggest the market is trying to top out. That said, corrections...
The ECB (European Central Bank) raised rates in July for the first time in a decade. Today they will raise rates again, and the question is whether it will be by 50 or 75bp. With the Europe likely headed for double digit inflation then the case for a hawkish 75bp hike there. And like they did in the July meeting, ECB policy makers are also likely to express...
Cable has had a rough 4-week stretch, shedding over 800 pips from the mid-August high above 1.2200 to trade near 1.1400 earlier this week. In fact, on Wednesday, the pair briefly hit its lowest level since 1985! Bulls did finally step in to defend that key support level near 1.1415, taking the pair back up to the mid-1.1600s during today’s European session....
Gold has repeatedly hit resistance around the $1725 area. The metal has been struggling all year because of rising interest rate expectations from both side of the Atlantic and a strong US dollar. But with the lack of any further news on inflation and interest rates this week, the metal has been able to climb higher a tad. It briefly poked its head above that...
Ahead of the ECB policy decision, the EUR/USD bounced back quite sharply to turn back positive on the week and rise above parity. Is this the start of a new counter-trend rally or just short-covering ahead of a key risk event? It is worth watching the EUR/USD to see how it fares by the close of play, when traders will have digested the ECB move and Powell's...
Price action on the DJI (Dow Jones Industrial) and several other markets have flagged the potential for a contrarian setup (favourble for bulls). The Dow Jones has seen a relatively deep pullback against the rally from the June low, and there has been two false breaks of trend support over the past two sessions. Furthermore, a bullish engulfing candle formed...
Silver couldn’t hold onto its earlier gains as recession concerns around the world continue to boost the appetite for US dollar. Investors are becoming more and more convinced that the Fed is going to raise rates by another 75 basis points this month and proceed with further aggressive hikes until inflation comes back under control. Silver's price action would...
Whilst the overall trend and sentiment point lower, yesterday’s false break of support could provide a potential bounce for the Hang Seng index. Despite its downtrend on the daily chart, the HSI produced a strong bullish engulfing candle on the 25th of August which showed strong demand around 19,200 – a level which has held since May (and a similar candle...
Futures markets for European and US indices are trading higher ahead of today’s open, although the moves are more likely to be repositioning as opposed to a bullish signal for equity markets as a whole. Flash CPI data remains the key focus for euro traders today. Yesterday we saw that German CPI rose at the state and nationwide level, and Spain’s rose slightly...
The question on most trader's minds is whether USD/JPY will finally test 140. And another question is whether the BOJ (Bank of Japan) could intervene to weaken the yen and send USD/JPY lower. But it should be remembered that it is not an exact level in which the yen trades as to whether the BOJ intervenes, but how quickly it gets there. The BOJ have made it clear...
The world’s oldest cryptoasset has had a quiet week, with prices consolidating in an abnormally tight $1,000 range centered at the key $20,000 level for the last seven days. In a way, the quiet price action can be viewed as a win of sorts for crypto bulls, given the fact that the typically-correlated Nasdaq 100 index has fallen nearly 3% over the last week, but...
Following the goldilocks jobs report, US stocks rallied and added to their rebound from the second of Thursday's session. However, the markets remain in a longer-term bear trend and are not out of the woods. The Fed is going to be tightening its policy aggressively in coming months, which should put a ceiling on asset prices. The bears must now wait for the...