- The price of spot Gold briefly exceeded the record high it made last December. The price then made a bearish retracement, but the short-term price action now looks quite bullish, so another attempt at the high looks probable. Trend traders will be interested here on the long side.
- Bitcoin yesterday briefly exceeded its record high made in 2021 yesterday, and then plunged lower by almost 10% on widespread profit-taking by investors and traders. However, Bitcoin then bounced back almost as strongly, and may threaten its high again very soon, although this looks less likely to happen than a new high in Gold. Trend traders will be interested to be involved here on the long side, and this has become easier since Bitcoin ETFs were approved for sale a few weeks ago. The increase in recent days has been dramatic: Bitcoin rose by more than 50% in value in only 5 days!
- Markets today will likely be dominated by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to the House of Congress today about the Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report. Powell is expected to continue to push his “no rush to cut rates” message of recent weeks. The potential for surprise is mostly on the more dovish side, and if that happens, expect stocks and Gold to roar higher.
- The Bank of Canada is expected to hold its Overnight Rate at 5.00% as it holds a policy meeting.
- In the Forex market, the Australian Dollar has been the strongest major currency since the Tokyo open today. The Swiss Franc has been the weakest. The Japanese Yen has been one of the most interesting currencies lately as the Bank of Japan’s seeming readiness to abandon its longstanding ultra-loose monetary policy puts its long-term bearish trend into question.
- Australian GDP data released earlier came in exactly as expected, showing an annualized rate of 1.4%.
- US ISM Services PMI data released yesterday came in lower than expected, suggesting a cooling in the services sector of the economy.
- There will be releases today of some other important data:
- US ADP Non-Farm Employment Forecast
- UK Annual Budget Release
- US JOLTS Job Data