US Market Wrap

Data was scarce to say the least in the US session and with no official economic releases, much of the attention was back on President Trump.

Sure enough, he didn’t disappoint with the President suggesting he was willing to wait another year, to secure a trade deal with China. Again, that wasn’t what the markets wanted to hear and the SPX closed in the red, down -0.66%.

Meanwhile, the Greenback continues to come under pressure on the back of yesterday’s news that Trump will impose new tariffs on steel and aluminium from Brazil and Argentina. On top of that, the US has moved to introduce tariffs on French imports in retaliation for a new digital tax.

As a result, the Greenback has fallen from its November highs and is back under 98.00 according to the US Dollar Index (DXY).

Today’s Agenda

As the week rolls on, we will start to focus more and more on the US jobs report that is due for release on Friday. In today’s session, there will be a fair bit of attention on the unofficial ADP number.

We are looking at 140K new jobs this month which is up on the prior of 125K. For the most part, this is often a good leading indicator of what we might expect. And of recent times, we have seen the jobs situation in the US remains very robust. While later in the session we get ISM non-manufacturing PMI.

Elsewhere, there are some more data points out of the UK for the GBP/USD to focus on. With both composite and services PMI. Before we look to the API data for WTI.

Trump and the trade wars remain the main event this week until Friday’s number so that will be one to watch today.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders Team finished with 1 win from the 2 signals in a quiet session.

USD/JPY – Active Signal

The USD/JPY has been very soft this week thanks to the weak USD. We bought the pullback, but we are hoping we have enough room with our stop to get the bounce.

Oil – Pending Signal

WTI has been holding relatively steady lately and at the moment there is a fair bit of support below. We have both $55 and $56 that should see buying as well as $54 which is a big level. We are hunting a long signal as a result.

Cryptocurrency Update

BTC has had another poor showing and is starting to look like it wants to re-test the $7,000 level.

Above us, we still have the $7,600 level with more resistance at $7,800 and $8,000.

I am still biased to the short side here and would suggest selling any bounces or a break of $7,000.