Forex Signals Brief January 16: Spotlight on the BOE’s Baily and Canadian CPI Today
Yesterday there was some decent price action in the European session, however it slowed down in the US session as most markets in the United States were closed in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Overall, the US dollar was the strongest currency, outperforming all major currencies on the day.
The Euro showed the most resilience against the USD, after comments from ECB policymakers Holzman and Nagel making hawkish comments, suggesting that it will take quite some time for the European Central Bank to start lowering interest rates. Holzman indicated that the traders should not expect the ECB to start the easing cycle in 2024 while Nagel added that “it is too early to discuss rate reduction”.
Risk assets such as stock markets remained slightly bearish yesterday, as risk sentiment remained negative all day, after the People’s Bank of China failed to lower the MLF rate to 2.40% and left it at 2.50% instead. That kept commodity dollars bearish, with the NZD losing around 60 pips against the greenback. Even the CAD ended the day lower despite the increase in manufacturing sales which came at at 1.2% vs 1.1% expected.
Today’s Market Expectations
The first major data today will be the employment report from the UK. The unemployment rate is predicted to remain unchanged at 4.2%, but the average earnings index is expected to fall by 4 points 6.8%, compared to 7.2% in November. Earnings without bonuses are expected to slow down even further, falling to 6.6%, compared to 7.3% previously.
The CPI report from Canada will be released next, and the yearly CPI is predicted to jump 2 points up to 3.3% from 3.1% in November. The monthly CPI is expected to turn negative though and come at -0.3% in December, down from 0.1% previously. The BoC wants to see more progress on inflation and wage growth, so this report might get the CAD moving today.
Later we have the Empire State Manufacturing Index from the US, which is expected to show an improvement to -4.9 points from -14.5 in the previous month. The Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will close the day, as he is due to testify on the UK economy before the Lords Economic Affairs Committee and might hint at upcoming rate cuts which would send the GBP down.
Yesterday there was enough price action in the European session, however, the Asian and US sessions were pretty quiet. Most of our trading signals were long term, so they didn’t reach their target, apart from the EUR/USD signal which also remained open as this pair held steady. We only had one closed forex signal at the end of the day.
Gold Trading Between 2 MAs on the Daily Chart
Gold has been steadily rising since October and continues to make higher lows, suggesting that buyers are in control. The price retreated in the final days of 2023 but last week sellers ran into the 50-day SMA (yellow) which stopped the decline. Gold rebounded higher off that moving average following the US inflation report and yesterday we decided to open another buy Gold signal.
XAU/USD – Daily chart
Buyers Remain in Charge in USD/CAD
Yesterday the risk-off atmosphere caused markets to take a more cautious position, which is damaging for commodity dollars like the CAD, keeping USD/CAD bullish for most of the day. The USD gained some momentum on the unfavorable sentiment in financial markets and USD/CAD was testing last week’s highs at 1.4440s.
USD/CAD – 60 minute chart
Cryptocurrency Update
The Decline Stopps Above $40,000 Again for Bitcoin
Bitcoin has been finding strong demand as SEC was heading toward approving the Bitcoin EFT. After the event which happened last week, the sentiment in the crypto market was boosted even more, and cryptocurrencies continued to remain bullish. That sent BTC to $49,000 where we closed our buy BTC signal and decided to open another buy Bitcoin signal as the price retreated, but sellers sent the price down to$41,540. However, yesterday buyers returned and pushed the price above $42,000, so it seems like the support zone above $40,000 is still holding.
BTC/USD – Daily Chart
Ethereum Still Trading Above $2,500
This year, ETH/USD has reached new highs, demonstrating that the trend has been bullish throughout the year, with moving averages pushing lows higher. Buyers returned this week after a temporary retreat, but they were unable to break the previous week’s high of $2,500. On Wednesday, the price fell to $2,127, but then recovered, with the 50 SMA (yellow) functioning as support on the daily chart, and the price soared beyond $2,500 yesterday.
Ethereum – Daily Chart
- ETH Buy Signal
- Entry Price: $1,947.38
- Stop Loss: $1,490
- Take Profit: $2,500
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