NEWS COMMENTARY
US
Bets on Fed fund futures suggest that traders have already priced in the near-certainty of the next rate hike to occur this coming week. Yet the dollar reversed course, after last week posting the second trough in a descending peak-trough succession.
Also in the U.S., traders will get the opportunity to react to the latest data on consumer confidence, durable goods and gross domestic product.
OIL
A steady rise in U.S. oil output will gather pace in the next five years, OPEC said on Sunday, predicting that demand for the producer group’s crude will decline despite a growing appetite for energy fed by global economic expansion.
“Declining demand for OPEC crude is a result of strong non-OPEC supply in the 2017–2023 period, most notably from U.S. tight oil,” the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its long-term world oil outlook.
“The U.S. remains by far the most important source of medium-term supply growth, contributing … two-thirds of new supply, driven by surging tight oil output,” it said
EUR & GBP
The near term drag for the single currency continues to be around the Italian debt. Recently, on August 31 to be more precise, the 2-year yield gilt on Italian bonds was as high as 1.465%, before plummeting to 0.63% after the presentation of the Italian budget prospect. It’s of no coincidence that the Euro rally in September coincided with a reduction of perceived short-term sovereign credit risk around Italy. If concerns around Italy are going to impact the Euro, it will be via another rise in short-term yields. We believe that there is no such a thing as a “crisis” surrounding Italian Credit’s situation; however, “news” do have the potential to print short-lived volatility to the markets.
The return of ‘hard Brexit’ fears resulting from the “surprisingly” fractious Salzburg summit obviously hit the British Pound hard at the end of the week. After Teresa May suggested that there would be a no deal Brexit, which of course causes a lot of fear. She stated that there are still a couple of points in the negotiation that divide the UK and the EU, but the spillover impact to the Euro was apparent as well. If odds of a disruptive exit from the EU increase, the uncertainty surrounding the impact to trade could be enough of a reason for the European Central Bank to eventually delay its monetary policy timeline for late next year.
AUD & NZD
While an easing of trade tensions between the United States and China may have been the catalysts behind last week’s rally in the Aussie and Kiwi, the possibility of renewed concerns could take the currencies lower early this week. This is because late Friday, China announced it was cancelling its meeting with the U.S., and wouldn’t resume negotiations until after the November U.S. mid-term elections.
The Australian Dollar, a proxy of China-related trades as well as gauge of risk sentiment, climbed to a three-week high last week. It also produced its biggest weekly advance in 14 months. Additionally, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on triple-A rated Australia to stable from negative on Friday, providing the Aussie with a further lift.
In its monetary policy minutes, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warned on risks to its outlook from U.S.-China trade tensions and weak wages, while reaffirming its next interest rate move would likely be a hike.
The RBA also said “Significant tensions” around trade policy are a “material risk” to the global outlook. Unemployment is expected to decline gradually toward 5 percent and wage growth is expected to increase gradually as spare capacity in the labor market is absorbed.
Although the Fed is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate on its next meeting, Australian and New Zealand Dollar traders will be primarily focused on the direction the Fed will chart ahead. Traders essentially want to know how aggressive the Fed will be in increasing rates in the future.
The 25-basis point increase to the federal funds rate is already priced into the market. The hike will push the funds target to 2 percent to 2.25 percent, where it last was more than 10 years ago.
Since the rate hike has already been factored into the dollar and the currencies, traders will be paying more attention to any information that shows how much more monetary tightening will be necessary to keep the economy (and inflation) healthy.
In New Zealand, the focus will be on business confidence and the interest rate and monetary policy decisions by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). The Reserve Bank is widely expected to leave its benchmark interest rate at 1.75%.
CHART ANALYSIS
OIL
Last week price continued its ranging move between support at 66.2-64.15 and resistance at 74.45-72.45. After having breached the ascending trend, price turned back to the support zone with a bounce from an ascending trend as shown on the daily chart below. Price is now “pin bar” retesting this zone, as we expect bullish momentum to build up towards the 72.45-74.45 level.
S&P 500
On the daily chart, the price has broken the key resistance level at 2875.58 and stayed above it to reinforce the bullish bias.
However, we should highlight significant reversal signs, including:
1. Elliot’s Wave 5 has formed;
2. AB=CD harmonic pattern in play.
3. A Wedge reversal pattern remains active.
4. RSI Divergence.
Thus, if price breaks through support at 2875.58 we should witness a correction towards 2797.82.
AUD/USD
On the daily chart, the Aussie is clearly reflecting a bearish bias as it descends down a channel that started forming since the beginning of this year; reaching support at 0.71 where some clear sign of reversal showed up.
We expect reversal/consolidation to develop further as:
1. Price has bounced from the support zone between 0.71-0.716.
2. An AB=CD harmonic pattern is rather suggestive.
3. A Wedge reversal pattern.
4. RSI divergence.
the price manages to stay above 0.7225,then it has the potential of reaching 0.733 and 0.745
USD/CAD
On the daily chart, we observe the Loonie to follow a descending channel since June this year, with a false 2 weeks reversal before continuing its way down.
As we expected before that the price fell further to 1.289 and meet the ascending trend line from March’s Low, coupled with the 200 Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
Now the price located at the key support of 1.289 besides the ascending trend line from the low of 2017. so, any bounce here would expose the price back to 1.312. and any break beneath these levels would continue the bearish bias to 1.272
USD/JPY
On the daily chart, as expected, price is moving upwards to the 113 target, leaving 112 as near-term support. We expect an extension towards the 113 area before resumption of the downside towards at least 109,75.
Related posts
Daily: Trade was Escalates; RBA Gives the Australian Dollar Upwards Momentum
Daily -UK CPI Gives Sterling (short-lived?) Upward Momentum; NAFTA Talks Continues; European Summit Ahead
Daily: Trade War Fears Fading; Strong Kiwi on NZ GDP Increase; U.K Retail Sales Printing Upward Momentum on the Pound
Daily: New Episode of Trade War, Brexit Negotiations, U.S & South Korean Summit