Yesterday’s Market Wrap

Yesterday was another quiet day as traders and investors waited for the FOMC meeting which will be held this evening. The USD uptrend stalled on Monday, but yesterday things started moving in the favour of the Buck again, which made some minor gains against most major currencies.

The Reserve bank of Australia (RBA) started to increase interest rates as they delivered a 25 bps rate hike early in the Asian session, which was more than the 15 bps hike that the market was expecting. That took the rates from 0.10% to 0.35% which helped the AUD jump around 100 pips higher. But, there was no continuation as the economic contraction in China is weighing on commodity dollars.

The Data Agenda Today 

Today China and Japan are still off for Labor/Greenery Day, therefore the Asian session was slow, although we had the employment report from New Zealand and the Reserve bank of New Zealand governor Orr holding a speech early in the session. The unemployment rate was expected to tick lower from 3.2% to 3.1%. The final reading for Eurozone services in March is not expected to change much. 

The ADP non-farm employment report and the ISM services in the US session will be the last economic data for the FED before they make the rate decision later in the evening. Although, the interest rates have been decided to be increased to 1.00%, so there won’t be much of a surprise there. So, Jerome Powell’s press conference will take all the attention, as Powell is expected to lay the road ahead for the next several months.

Forex Signal Update

Yesterday we opened two new forex signals, since the price action was slow again in most markets due to the FED meeting later today. We decided to go long on the USD since the retreat ended on Monday and buyers started to come back again. 

GBP/USD – Sell Signal

This pair retraced higher recently, but we decided to sell GBP/USD, since this pair has been quite bearish in the last few weeks. The pullback after such a steep decline which sent the price down from 1.31 to 1.24 seemed pretty weak and the 20 SMA 9gray0 was providing resistance on the H4 chart, so we decided to open a sell signal at this moving average which closed in profit as GBP/USD started to reverse down.  

GBP/USD – 240 min chart

EUR/GBP – Buy Signal 

Yesterday we finally closed the trade that we opened last week here. In the last two months, we have seen EUR/GBP bounce up and down in a range that stretches roughly between 0.8250 and 0.85. We decided to open a buy signal in this pair last Friday, as the price was retreating lower and now this pair bounced off the 200 SMA (purple) on the H4 chart yesterday, which acted as support and our trade closed in profit.

EUR/GBP – 240 min chart

Cryptocurrency Update

THORChain Forming A Descending Wedge 

RUNE began a strong uptrend last month, which sent it more than 400% higher as THORChain made some important upgrades. Although the highs still keep getting lower on a larger scale. We decided to open a buy signal last month, after the pullback to the 200 SMA (purple).

The price started to bounce off that moving average and we were well in profit for some time, but the bearish sentiment in the crypto market has sent RUNE/USD lower. Although we are holding on to our signal and might add further lower toward support, since fundamentals are strong for THORChain.      

RUNE/USD slipping below moving averages

Terra LUNA Has Began to Bounce

We decided to buy Terra LUNA token since this cryptocurrency has been the most bullish among major ones for many months, as it continues to make higher highs until last month. LUNA/USD retreated in January, falling to the low $40s, but the 200 SMA (purple) held as support twice and buyers resumed the uptrend again.

Luna almost reached $120 earlier this month but retreated lower again although this time it was the 100 SMA (green) which held as support where we decided to open a buy signal. LUNA/USD strted to bounce off this moving average but the 20 daily SMA (gray) stopped the bounce and now the price has returned back down to the 100 SMA.

The 100 SMA held again as support for LUNA token