For investors, 2018 was a year to forget and many will be hoping the new year brings some better luck on the stock market.

However, for traders, 2018 marked the start of some serious volatility and that is always a good thing as it means there is opportunity.

Despite the shortened trading week, we still have some key economic data points that we can focus on, as well as the overall sentiment.

On Friday we get the US employment report, which will be crucial given the concerns over growth going forward.

Today we will get Eurozone and UK Manufacturing PMI, which comes on the back of the Chinese private data today.

Happy new year and all the best for 2019.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders Team have had a strong holiday period and are currently 7 and 2 since the Christmas break.

GOLD – With uncertainty in the air and stock markets crashing, gold has proven to be a solid performer. We are now clearly looking at 1300 as the next major level above and there is a decent chance that we get there if markets continue to fall.

EUR/USD – Active Signal

Since the beginning of December the EUR/USD has been relatively strong. As volatility has risen, the Euro has held up quite well and a slight fall in the USD is helping this one stay propped up. We are long looking for another push higher.

AUD/USD – Active Signal

The AUD/USD has been selling off in recent weeks along with most of the risk-on type plays. We have Chinese data out later today and that will play a big part in the result of this signal. We recently saw a weak PMI figure and another will likely see us test 0.7000.

Cryptocurrency Update

Bitcoin certainly had a year to forget and there has been little positive news over the course of 2018.

The holiday period hasn’t seen much action in the cryptocurrencies and so far Bitcoin is still holding below $4,000.

Price is still making lower highs with the last major upticks being at $4,400 and $4,200 respectively.

The trend is still down despite some bottoming recently. However, I would still be looking to go with the trend for the time being while the lower highs are still holding.