The USD made a sharp leap forward yesterday, despite a number of negative headlines doing the rounds, but the real test might just be later today.

The main event of interest for traders on Thursday is set to be US GDP. The US economy has slowed of recent times with the annual GDP print expected to be down from 3.1% earlier in the year to a soft 2.0%.

Clearly, that’s one of the reasons the FOMC had for slashing interest rates by 25bp at the last meeting. Despite it being called a ‘hawkish cut’, there are still some on the board who lobbied for 50bp of cuts.

If we see a soft number here today, then that will only strengthen the doves case. Conversely a better than expected print, could mean the cuts are a thing of the past and the hawks will in-fact win out. That should see the USD appreciate even further, which will pressure the majors.

Yesterday, the main headline doing the rounds were surrounding a potential impeachment of the President, but to me it looks like the market is starting to grow wary of negative Trump headlines with little substance. So hopefully the attention is back on the fundamentals.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders Team finished with 3 wins from 4 signals in a solid turnaround for the guys.

USD/CAD – Active Signal

The [[USD/CAD] has been relatively range bound of recent times, hovering between 1.3200 and 1.3300. This is OK and we can play this range. So we are long, looking for a simple retest of those highs.

EUR/GBP – Active Signal

Our EUR/GBP signal is holding steady amongst a strong downtrend in this pair. The longer-time frame momentum is to the downside and we are simply riding that trend.

Cryptocurrency Update

The party looks to be well and truly over for the BTC bulls as price has dumped as low as the $8,000 level and there could well be more to come.

We’ve been calling for a break out way back at $9,500, but now the play might be to see if this little area of consolidation starts looking like a pennant type formation.

That would suggest there will be more follow-through here and a run of $8,000 could be on the cards. Alternatively, playing a break of $8,000 to the downside could well be a good trade too, but sometimes we get some whipsaws given the liquidity issues in BTC. Either way, it looks like the bias is now short until proven otherwise.