S&P 500 Index: Next potential supports at 3500/3460 – SocGen

 S&P 500 has resumed its downtrend. Analysts at Société Générale note that the technical outlook denotes prevalence in downward momentum.

Failure to reclaim 3900 can lead to continuation in decline

“Monthly RSI is now close to the lower limit of its bullish territory (near 40 levels); this band has cushioned the declines since 2010. However, signals of a trend reversal are still not visible in price action.”

“Short-term resistance is located at 3860/3900, the 38.2% retracement from August. Failure to reclaim 3900 can lead to continuation in decline.” 

“Next potential supports are at projections of 3500/3460 and February 2020 levels of 3393.”

EUR/GBP to extend its advance once key resistance at 0.8720 is reclaimed – SocGen

 EUR/GBP picks up bids to reverse Friday’s losses. Economists at Société Générale expect the pair to extend its race higher on a break past 0.8720.

Short-term support aligns at 0.8560

“EUR/GBP recently gave a break above the descending trend line drawn since 2020 denoting potential upside. This is also highlighted by weekly MACD which is now firmly anchored within positive territory and above its trigger.” 

“The pair is close to key graphical resistance of 0.8720. Once this is reclaimed, the up move is likely to extend towards projections of 0.8860 and perhaps even towards 0.8980/0.9010.” 

Euro holds above 2-decade low before ECB decision

 LONDON (Reuters) - The euro was hovering above Tuesday's two-decade low on Thursday as investors awaited a policy decision from the European Central Bank (ECB) and comments from the head of the Federal Reserve for insight on the path for global monetary tightening.

The ECB is expected to raise rates by 75 basis points (bps), taking its deposit rate above zero for the first time since 2012, but the option of a smaller 50 basis point hike hasn't been ruled out.

"We expect the ECB to only do 50 basis points today, instead of the consensus view of 75," said Chris Turner, head of markets at ING. "If that's the case, we think euro-dollar probably corrects back down to about $0.99."

By 0747 GMT, the euro was trading down 0.3% at $0.99795, holding above its lowest level since late 2002 of $0.9864 as Europe's energy crisis keeps the single currency under pressure and the dollar reigns as the Fed reiterates its commitment to bring inflation down to target.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to participate in a discussion at 1310 GMT -- overlapping with ECB chief Lagarde's post-decision press conference -- with Fed officials soon due to enter into a blackout period prior to the central bank's Sept. 20-21 meeting.

Recent Fed rhetoric has continued to be hawkish overall.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said on Wednesday that bringing inflation back down to 2% is the Fed's "Job One," while Vice Chair Lael Brainard said tight monetary policy will continue "for as long as it takes to get inflation down."

Money markets lay 79% odds that the Fed will hike by another 75 basis points at this month's meeting, which would increase the fed funds rate to 3.0% to 3.25%.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against six major counterparts, edged up 0.1% lower to 109.82, after hitting a peak at 110.79 on Wednesday, a level not seen since June 2002.

Sterling weakened 0.4% to $1.1486, heading back toward the previous day's 37-year low of $1.1407, ahead of new British Prime Minister Liz Truss's announcement on her plans to tackle soaring energy bills.

Japan's yen showed some resilience on Thursday, trading little changed at 143.77 per dollar, after reaching a 24-year low of 144.99 in the previous session.

The yen has been a particular victim of recent dollar strength, partly due to its sensitivity to rising long-term U.S. yields as hawkish Fed bets ramped up and the Bank of Japan remains the holdout dovish central bank.

"Ongoing depreciation pressure on the yen has raised the probability of a change in policy (from the Bank of Japan) later this year," Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts said in a research note.

"If the BoJ drops YCC (yield curve control), rate differentials vs the U.S. should stop widening, and the rise in USD/JPY should pause or reverse."

Officials from Japan's Finance Ministry, Bank of Japan and Financial Services Agency are meeting today to discuss global financial markets, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said.

Meanwhile, the Aussie fell 0.5% to $0.67345, earlier tumbling as low as $0.6713, after RBA Governor Lowe said in a speech "the case for a slower pace of increase in interest rates becomes stronger as the level of the cash rate rises."

US Dollar Index Price Analysis: Immediately to the upside comes 109.77

 

• DXY prints fresh cycle highs near 109.50 on Monday.
• Further upside could revisit the September 2002 high at 109.77.

DXY extends the post-Powell rally to the area of 109.50, recording at the same time new cycle highs.

Further upside remains on the cards for the index in the near term. Against that, the surpass of the 2022 high at 109.47 (August 29) should open the door to the September 2002 top at 109.77 prior to the round level at 110.00.

In the meantime, while above the 6-month support line around 105.40, the index is expected to keep the short-term positive stance.

Looking at the long-term scenario, the bullish view in the dollar remains in place while above the 200-day SMA at 100.74.

US Dollar Index Price Analysis: Further losses not ruled out

 

• DXY accelerates the corrective decline to the 105.30 zone.
• Immediate to the downside appears the 55-day SMA at 104.75.

DXY navigates the fourth consecutive session with losses and revisits the 105.30 region at the beginning of the week.

The index broke below the multi-session pre-FOMC consolidative theme and in doing so it has paved the way for extra decline in the short-term horizon. That said, the immediate support now turns up at the interim 55-day SMA at 104.75 ahead of the 5-month support line around 103.85.

The near-term outlook for DXY remains constructive while above this 5-month support line near 104.00.

In addition, the broader bullish view remains in place while above the 200-day SMA at 99.49.

EUR/USD Price Analysis: Range bound within 1.0100-1.0260 since July 22

 

• The EUR/USD is set to finish the week almost flat, gaining 0.05%.
• The shared currency daily chart is neutral-to-downwards, but the hourly is neutral-to-upwards.
• EUR/USD Price Analysis: A daily close above 1.0200 could pave the way towards 1.0300; otherwise, it might drop towards 1.0096.

The EUR/USD is trading at 1.0220, after hitting a daily high at 1.0254, but later tumbled towards the daily low at 1.0145 on elevated US inflation data. In June, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) rose by 6.8% YoY, fueling expectations of additional Federal Reserve rate hikes, despite the market's pricing in only 80 bps of tightening.

EUR/USD Price Analysis: Technical outlook

From a daily chart perspective, the EUR/USD remains neutral-to-downward biased, helped by the 20-day EMA lying below the exchange rate at 1.0167. Nevertheless, the EUR/USD, unable to capitalize on an upbeat market mood, and broad US dollar weakness, keeps the shared currency exposed to further selling pressure. If EUR/USD buyers want to shift the bias to neutral, they must reclaim the May 13 low-turned-resistance at 1.0348. Once cleared, a challenge of the 50-day EMA at 1.0423 is on the cards. On the other hand, if EUR/USD sellers achieve a daily close below 1.0200, that would pave the road towards 1.0096.

Malaysia: Inflation surprised to the upside in June – UOB

 UOB Group’s Senior Economist Julia Goh and Economist Loke Siew Ting assess the latest inflation figures in the Malaysian economy.

Key Takeaways

“Headline inflation breached the 3% level for the first time this year at 3.4% y/y in Jun (from 2.8% in May). It came in higher than ours and Bloomberg consensus of 3.2%. Price pressures broadened with more consumer price index (CPI) components recording larger price increases last month compared to the preceding month, led by food and transport components.”

“We expect CPI growth to jump above 4.0% in 2H22 after averaging 2.5% in 1H22. Our 2H22 inflation outlook largely rests on high commodity prices, year-ago low base effects, persistent currency weakness, changes in some staple food prices (i.e. chicken, eggs and cooking oil), and recovering domestic demand. The new targeted fuel subsidy mechanism, which is currently under pilot testing, will pose upside risks to our inflation outlook should it be implemented over the next few months.   As such, our current full-year inflation forecast of 3.0% is subject to upward revision next month when the Jul CPI reading is released (vs. 2.5% in 2021, BNM est: 2.2%-3.2%).”

“The combination of factors including broadening second-round effects on inflation, firmer domestic economic recovery, and diminishing real interest rate gap with US continue to suggest a need for further policy normalisation. We expect Bank Negara Malaysia to deliver another 25bps rate hike at the next MPC meeting on 7-8 Sep, taking the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) to 2.50%.

Germany's Habeck: We want to prevent a domino effect in gas market

  

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday that they will stick to their plan of prioritizing private households in case of a gas emergency, as reported by Reuters.

"The gas market situation is tense, cannot say whether more protection measures will be needed," Habeck added. "We want to prevent a domino effect in the gas market."

Market reaction

Safe-haven flows continue to dominate the financial markets following these remarks. As of writing, Germany's DAX 30 Index was down 1.5% on the day at 12,580.50 points.

EUR/USD Price Analysis: Sustained gains seen above 1.0670/80

 

• EUR/USD keeps the erratic activity well in place this week.
• The 1.0670/80 band continues to cap the upside so far.

EUR/USD resumes the upside bias past the 1.0500 mark following Thursday’s decent pullback.

So far, and as long as the 4-month line in the 1.0670/80 band limits the upside, extra pullbacks in the pair should remain on the cards in the near term. The surpass of this area, however, could spark a bull run to the June top at 1.0773 and the May peak at 1.0786.

In the longer run, the pair’s bearish view is expected to prevail as long as it trades below the 200-day SMA at 1.1136.

📕 Comment on Gold on May 9, 2022:

 

📕 Comment on Gold on May 9, 2022:

 - On Friday, the US released Nonfarm payrolls data, this data was better than market expectations but only caused Gold to decline slightly to 1875. Gold then bounced up to close the daily candle equal to 1875.  The bullish candle is around 1882. This also makes the last candle close with a bearish candle, but retreated quite long.

 - My personal view at the beginning of this week's trading session is that Gold will continue to gain momentum.  The closest support area for this precious metal is around 1873-1877.  Here we can establish a long position with a safe target around 1883 -1888.

USD/CHF pares intraday gains to fresh YTD peak, downside seems limited amid stronger USD

 

• USD/CHF jumped to a fresh YTD peak on Wednesday amid the prevalent USD buying interest.
• Bets for aggressive Fed rate hikes, a bleak global economic outlook continued boosting the USD.
• The risk-on impulse could undermine the safe-haven CHF and supports prospects for further gains.

The USD/CHF pair retreated a few pips from its highest level since May 2020 touched during the first half of the European session and was last seen trading just below the mid-0.9600s.

The pair prolonged its recent strong bullish run witnessed since the beginning of this month and gained follow-through traction for the fifth successive day on Wednesday. The momentum was sponsored by sustained buying around the US dollar, which climbed to a more than two-year peak amid the prospects for a more aggressive policy tightening by the Fed.

Investors now expect the Fed to raise interest rates by 50 bps at each of its next four meetings in May, June, July and September. The bets were reaffirmed by the recent hawkish comments by influential FOMC members, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell. This, along with the deteriorating global economic outlook, boosted the greenback's reserve currency status.

Expectations for rapid interest rate hikes in the US, prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict and the latest COVID-19 outbreak in China have raised fears of stalling global growth. Investors now seem worried that Russia could follow through on its threat to halt gas flows to countries that refuse to pay for fuel in roubles and cut off supplies to Europe.

That said, extremely overbought conditions held back traders from placing fresh bullish bets and kept a lid on any further gains for the USD/CHF pair, at least for now. The intraday bias, however, remains tilted in favour of bulls amid the prevalent strong bullish sentiment surrounding the USD and the risk-on impulse, which tends to undermine the safe-haven Swiss franc.

Market participants now look forward to second-tier US economic releases for some impetus later during the early North American session. The data, along with Fed rate hike expectations, would influence the USD price dynamics. Traders will further take cues from the broader market risk sentiment to grab some short-term opportunities around the USD/CHF pair.

📕 Comment on Gold on April 20, 2022:

📕 Comment on Gold on April 20, 2022:

 - In yesterday's trading session, precious metal Gold had one day of decline from 1981 to 1943 ($38), closing the day session with a strong bearish candle around 1949. Gold has returned.  back to the upper boundary of the previous sideways range.  With Gold approaching this support zone, I think it's likely that Gold will have a rebound in the early trading session today.

 - On the H4 chart, Gold may recover to around the threshold of 1950-1951 and is expected to rise around the threshold of 1962-1965.  Here, there is a high possibility that Gold will face selling pressure and drop again.

When is the US monthly jobs report (NFP) and how could it affect EUR/USD?

 

US monthly jobs report overview

Friday's US economic docket highlights the release of the closely-watched US monthly jobs data. The popularly known NFP report is scheduled for release at 12:30 GMT and is expected to show that the economy added 490K new jobs in March, down from the 678K reported in the previous month. The unemployment rate is expected to edge lower to 3.7% from 3.8% in February. Apart from this, investors will take cues from Average Hourly Earnings amid expectations for a more aggressive policy response to contain high inflation. 

As Joseph Trevisani, Senior Analyst at FXStreet, explains: “It is becoming clear that the reconstitution of the labor market is not enough to prevent inflation from crippling the economic recovery. The crucial factor is consumer spending. About two-thirds of US economic activity can be directly traced to personal expenditures. The availability of jobs and the ability of workers to seek higher wages are the main supports for consumer spending.”

📕 Comment on Gold on January 14, 2022:

- In yesterday's trading session, precious metal Gold had a correction from 1827 to 1811 ($ 16), after returning to this is also the area we had planned to buy, Gold bounced back to 1822. Close  Yesterday's session closed with a falling candle, which shows that buying pressure is still quite strong and it is likely that in my opinion Gold will continue to go up at the beginning of today's session.

- Switching to the H4 time frame, I still maintain my old opinion when the good support area to establish a long Xau state is around the 1814-1817 price zone with the target "old top" 1828-1832 and my expectation Gold  will be able to break this "top".

Gold Comment on December 01/2022:

- In yesterday's trading session, precious metal Gold went right as analyzed when it bounced up from 1800 to around 1823, closing the day session with a strong bullish green candle.  With the closing with this dominant bullish candle, the buy option will be prioritized in today's session.

- We can see the next resistance area for this precious metal Gold is around 1830-1834 but before going up here I expect Gold will have a slight correction before going up and possibly breaking.  broke the resistance zone 1830-1834.  In the beginning of today's trading session we may consider short selling this precious metal to the price range 1815-1817 when the precious metal comes here we consider a buy signal, then I will update later.