- The past day has seen a strong move against the conditions prevalent over the past week or so in which stock markets were falling and safe-haven assets such as the US Dollar were rising. Yesterday’s big winner was the NASDAQ 100 Index which made a strong gain, followed during the Asian session by the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index rising to close at its highest price in 34 years. This may be a key sign of a resumption of the dominant long-term trend, which is bullish on many stock markets, especially in the USA. Speculation that China will announce fresh monetary easing also helped.
- In the Forex market, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency since the Tokyo open today. The Australian Dollar has been the weakest. However, the major story here is renewed weakness in the US Dollar over the past 24 hours. There remains a valid long-term bullish trend in the EUR/USD currency pair.
- A standout asset in the market right now as 2024 gets underway is Bitcoin which is making a bullish consolidation after reaching a new 20-month high price last week above the round number at $45,000. This bullish consolidation will attract interest from traders, especially trend traders. Regulatory approval of the first Bitcoin ETF is expected to be announced any day now and is probably helping to keep Bitcoin bullish.
- Swiss CPI (inflation) data released yesterday was expected to show month-on-month deflation of 0.1%. The result was slightly higher, showing unchanged prices month-on-month.
- There will be a release later of Australian inflation data which is expected to show a decline in the annualized rate from 4.9% to 4.4%.
Forex Today: Nikkei 225 Closes at 34-Year High Price
Adam Lemon
The past 24 hours has seen a rally in most global stock markets, driven by a strong advance in the NASDAQ 100 Index, followed by the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index closing at a 34-year high price.