Forex Signals Brief for Aug 20: The USD does a U-Turn
US Market Wrap
US markets ran out of steam overnight with most risk assets falling and the USD finally rebounding.
The Greenback has been falling sharply in recent months and it appears that finally, the bulls have managed to get back a tiny bit of control. The move was accentuated by the FOMC minutes which highlighted that there are still downside risks to the economy and inflation will likely remain subdued for some time.
The rising USD meant the majors finally topped out with many not able to continue pushing higher. While the dollar also meant that GOLD was put back under a little bit of pressure.
The Data Agenda
Thursday is shaping up as a busy day on the data front both in Europe and the US.
The main release of note for EUR/USD traders is the ECB minutes. In what might be a similar story to yesterday, there is every chance that the minutes will highlight the tricky economic conditions and uncertainty we’re facing and this could very well weigh on the Euro.
Later in the US session, the main event will again be US jobless claims. Encouragingly, the number of claims has started to drop and is now under 1 million. Continuing claims are also falling and are now down to 15 million.
The other data point of note is the Philly Fed manufacturing index which is still on the soft side.
Forex Signal Update
The FX Leaders Team closed one signal in the green yesterday as the price action reversed heavily. We still have a number of open positions as well.
USD/CAD – Active Signal
The USD/CAD has bounced along with the Greenback nad managed to come right back to this trendline. While the trend remains, we are short looking for more selling to come.
Gold – Active Signal
GOLD has fallen away sharply on the back of the USD seeing some upside. For now, we are long with support below at $1900.
Cryptocurrency Update
As risk assets were on the nose yesterday, BTC fell away and is now back under the $12,000 level.
As I’ve been saying for some time now, ETH really does appear to be the one to watch as while it did fall, price still held the $400 level. To me, this is bullish price action and Ethereum is the leader in this space still.