All the attention is clearly in one place today and that’s the FOMC. The minutes of the last meeting are set to be released and there is much interest in just how dovish the FOMC was when it made its last decision.

Of course, that was the meeting where the board cut official interest rates by 25 bp. The FOMC had been under a fair bit of pressure to ease monetary policy after what looks like a bit of a false start in hiking rates.

It is known that Powell wanted to get rates back to a more ‘normal’ level, but it seems he and his men jumped the gun. They are now under a fair bit of pressure to wind back some of these hikes, which mean there could be more cuts on the way.

The interest in today’s event will be to see just what the other members had to say. The belief is that there were many who were pushing for larger cuts (50bp) or at the very least further cuts in the coming months.

So today’s minutes will be about whether that expectation is in fact correct. The USD will be a big mover on any news as will GOLD.

Elsewhere, the USD/CAD will also be worth watching as they get CPI data. While we also have WTI crude oil inventories that will be worth paying attention to.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders Team finished with 5 wins from 5 signals yesterday and are on an 8 straight winning streak. It looks like we have another strong week in the making here.

GBP/USD – Pending Signal

The GBP/USD has pushed higher again on the back of a falling USD but importantly is still below the key 1.2200 level. With that being the case the door is still open for a short position here so that will be our focus to start the European session.

Gold – Pending Signal

GOLD has been gyrating back and forth around the $1500 level for a while now and has not really been able to break out. Technically, being above $1500 puts our bias to the long side today, but be very cautious with gold today given the FOMC minutes will cause big volatility.

Cryptocurrency Update

BTC has not yet been able to jump above the $11,000 level but we are seeing the buyers hanging around.

Just looking at the chart, price is almost ‘stair-stepping’ higher which is a bullish sign. However, the true test comes at $11,000. If it can’t break and hold, then I expect price will get sucked back down to $10,000.

That still remains the key level for most traders at the moment.