First, a review of last week’s events:
EUR/USD. The Old and the New Worlds continue to compete to see who will pour more money into their economies. But what is the old Europe compared to the United States! On Thursday, April 10, after many days of discussion, the EU Finance Ministers narrowly reached a compromise, concluding a deal on measures to support their countries in the amount of “some” €500 billion. At the same time, the US Federal Reserve announced the launch of another $2.3 trillion support program. At the same time, the Head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said that his Department will most likely not stop there and will do everything in order to restore the US economy as quickly as possible after the epidemic.
Powell is to be trusted in this regard. And the point here is not only the COVID-19, but also that 2020 is the year of the next US Presidential election, and Donald Trump really wants to stay in the White House for a second term. The growth of the US economy has been a major asset in his fight for the presidency.
The unwinding flywheel of the quantitative easing program in the United States could not but put pressure on the dollar, and the USDX index closed trading below the psychological level of 100.0 on April 09. As for the EUR/USD pair, the dollar began to retreat starting from Monday. However, this retreat was not as panicky as in the last week of March, when the pair overcame 510 points. Now the euro has grown by less than 200 points, after which the pair ended the five-day period in the 1.0940 zone, and did not reach the landmark level of 1.1000;
GBP/USD. The dollar retreated against the pound as well. Besides the above, an additional factor that supported the British currency was the continued growth of borrowing rates in pounds in London and a decrease in borrowing rates in US dollars.
Recall that, giving a forecast for the past week, 20% of analysts had expected the continuation of the sideways trend of the pair in the range of 1.2245-1.2485, and another 30% – its movement from the lower to the upper border of this channel, indicating the level of 1.2475 as resistance. As a result, the overall forecast of these experts turned out to be correct: having failed to fall below the support of 1.2200, the pair turned north and ended the trading session at 1.2470;
USD/JPY. 60% of analysts had expected this pair to break the 108.70 resistance and the dollar to strengthen to the level of 111.65. The breakthrough occurred, however, the volatility of the Japanese currency was surprisingly low, and the growth of the pair stopped at the height of 109.37, after which it returned to where it started on Monday, to the zone of 108.40;
cryptocurrencies. Some experts, trying to improve the status of Bitcoin as a safe haven asset, convince us that digital gold can become a safe haven for investors on a par with real gold. Thus, specialists of the management company VanEck Global concluded that “the correlation of Bitcoin with gold has reached an unprecedented level” against the background of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indeed, the quotes of both assets are now growing. The XAU/USD and BTC/USD charts show that since March 16, 2020, the gold has risen by 16%, while Bitcoin has grown by as much as 55%. However, if you move just 4 days and start counting not from March 16, but from March 20, the picture will be completely different: the gold has grown by almost 14%, but the increase in the price of Bitcoin over the past three weeks was equal to … zero.
This suggests that with its ultra-volatility, bitcoin remains a great tool for short-term speculation. But to use it as a safe haven and, even more so, an object for investment, is still questionable. By the way, analysts from VanEck Global agree with this, noting that they only meant a short period of time. In the long term, the correlation between XAU/USD and BTC/USD remains quite low.
In our previous forecast, we noted that, starting from March 20, the main cryptocurrency is unsuccessfully trying to gain a foothold above the $7,000 level. The past week was no exception. The bulls broke through this resistance on April 06 and even reached the height of $7,440, but they again lost their positions on Friday, and the pair fell to the $6,850-6,900 zone.
As for the total capitalization of the crypto market, it has not changed much over the week and is around $193 billion. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has also not changed, it still indicates the presence of strong fear in the market, having risen by just one point over the week, from 14 to 15.
Such top altcoins as Ripple (XRP/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD) and Ethereum (ETH/USD) followed in the wake of the main cryptocurrency, but, in contrast, they were still in the green zone in the afternoon of Friday, April 10, showing a weekly increase from 5% (Litecoin and Ripple) to 10% (Ethereum).
As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of various methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:
EUR/USD. Needless to say, the situation with the coronavirus epidemic in the United States is very difficult, and the economy of this country is teetering on the verge of a deep depression. To support its producers, the Fed has launched a quantitative easing program and, starting on March 16, has already purchased $1.19 trillion in Treasury bonds. The regulator will buy more securities worth $150 billion next week, which will continue to put pressure on the dollar. This is why 65% of experts expect the EUR/USD uptrend to continue. The resistance levels are 1.1000, and 1.1240 1.1150.
On the other hand, the dollar is still the best currency during the crisis. It was this fact that stopped its active sales last week and is quite capable, according to the remaining 35% of analysts, to reverse the trend to the south again. The targets are 1.1100 and 1.1175;
One can understand what the indicators show just by looking at the charts of the pair. On D1, everything is quite colorful: there are about the same amounts of green, red and neutral gray colors. On H4, of course, green dominates, but 25% of the oscillators are already in the overbought zone.
As for the macroeconomic indicators, one should first of all pay attention to the retail sales and the number of initial unemployment claims in the US, which will be known on April 15 and April 16, respectively. Also, the data on China’s GDP will help to assess the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, which will be released on Friday April 17;
GBP/USD. The British currency is now in good demand due to the difference between the rates for the pound and the dollar in the interbank lending market. However, everything can change in an instant. That is why experts’ forecasts cannot be brought to any common denominator: 40% vote for the pair’s growth, 35% – for its fall, and 25% simply shrug their shoulders.
The pair is in the side channel for the second week, holding in the range of 1.2200-1.2485, and it will start from its upper border on Monday, April 13. Graphical analysis on H4 shows its further growth to the horizon of 1.2600 and a subsequent fall to the support of 1.2200. The range of fluctuations is slightly larger on D1: first rising to the height of 1.2650, and then falling to the level of 1.2175. The situation with the indicators is generally similar to the readings on the EUR/USD, 25% of the oscillators on both timeframes indicate that the pair is overbought;
USD/JPY. The number of dollars in the global financial system, the yield on the US Treasury bonds, stock indices and oil quotes, the state of the economy of China – all these factors affect the attractiveness of the yen as a safe haven currency. The zero result of the USD/JPY pair last week indicates that the market has not yet decided what to do with the Japanese currency, buy or sell. Most likely, we should not expect any independent movements from this pair, and its dynamics will reflect the overall market mood relative to the US dollar.
Meanwhile, 60% of experts vote for a further weakening of the dollar and the fall of the pair to around 107.00. The next support is in the 104.75-105.15 zone. The alternative view is supported by 40% of analysts. Resistance levels are 109.35, 110.15 and 111.70;
cryptocurrencies. According to the Head of UnionBank, Edwin Bautista, the transition of the banking sector to cryptocurrency against the background of the coronavirus pandemic looks very realistic. If the situation in the currency market does not stabilize, this measure will be the only one that will save the situation and keep the economy running. “Now almost all products are paid for online. We may see a period of complete rejection of fiat money in cash. If banks support the initiative of small regulators who already cooperate with cryptocurrency companies, the industry will reach a new level,” Bautista believes.
But the statement of the Head of UnionBank is at least a medium-term forecast. And what awaits us in the near future? Mid-April is the beginning of the corporate reporting season. And the indicators of both individual companies and entire sectors of the economy are very likely to be extremely low. The Fed and the ECB continue to flood the fire with cheap liquidity, which will cause a powerful wave of inflation.
In such a situation, and especially if there is an excess mass of fiat money, speculators may again decide to play the card of Bitcoin as a safe haven currency. In this case, Bitcoin will soon not just break the $7,000 and $7,400 levels, but also aim above the $8,000 mark. 60% of experts vote for this development.
There is, of course, the opposite, the bearish scenario, supported by 40% of analysts. And it also depends largely on what will happen in the US, where class-action lawsuits were filed a week ago against four major Bitcoin exchanges and seven ICO projects, including Binance, BitMex and EOS. These lawsuits allege possible violations of U.S. law by the defendants, including the rules for the issuance and circulation of securities. And if the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) grabs this case with a dead bulldog grip, Bitcoin will quickly break through the support of $6,700, and we will again see the pair in the region of $6,000.
