Wednesday was understandably a quiet one on world markets. With the US celebrating the 4th of July, there was only a small amount of activity out of Europe and Asia to keep things ticking over.

On Thursday US traders are back, a little worse for wear, but all the attention will now ramp up on the big data due out over the next two days. First and foremost we have the FOMC minutes. The focus here will be on what the members were thinking surrounding the June hike and the general steepening of the trajectory of hikes.

The other data to look out for will be ADP employment, which is a semi-preview of what we can expect from Friday’s non-farm payroll data. While to round things out we have ISM non-manufacturing PMI.

It has been a quiet week to date, but I suspect things are going to start ramping up today.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders team had only the single trade in what was a tight range bound session.

Gold – Gold has been declining in-line with a rising USD. Despite the trade war headlines, the yellow metal remains maligned at the moment. There appears to be a base forming now, which might lead to further short-term upside.

Bitcoin – BTC remains below the major resistance at $6,750 and is doing its best to stage a rally. Buying interest remains thin in my opinion.

NZD/USD – Closed Signal

The Kiwi ran right up and brushed our stop loss, before turning around and heading back to breakeven. I was a bit worried that we had enough wiggle room and unfortunately we ended up getting stopped out as Europe opened. I think there is plenty of downside here and will personally be looking for another entry as the trend remains strong.