First, a review of last week’s events:
EUR/USD. It seems that the market has decided not to pay much attention to the US presidential election. Investors are much more concerned about what is happening with the second wave of the pandemic COVID-19 in the Old and New Worlds, and what steps will be taken by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
In the United States – a record increase in the number of infected, which could lead to a collapse of stock markets, akin to March. However, in an effort to support the economy, the current White House administration is not yet going to introduce a lockdown, hoping for an early vaccination of the population. This decision was also influenced by the strong statistics of US GDP growth in the III quarter: plus 33.1% instead of minus 31.4% three months earlier.
As for Europe, many countries, including Germany and France, have already begun to implement stricter quarantine measures. Moreover, although at the last meeting on Thursday, October 29, the ECB did not lower the already low interest rate, the head of the bank, Christine Lagarde, made it very clear that very serious steps could be expected from the regulator in a month and a half, aimed at easing the monetary politics and stimulating the economy of the Old World.
Apparently, the European regulator decided to spend this time to determine the necessary amount of support for the economy, see how the situation with the coronavirus will develop and analyze the results of the US presidential election.
The data released on Friday, October 30, showed the growth of GDP in the Eurozone in the III quarter from minus 11.8% to plus 12.7%. But this, firstly, is significantly lower than in the United States, and secondly, according to Lagarde, the prospects with the onset of COVID-19 are so gloomy that the ECB does not rule out a recession in the Eurozone in the IV quarter. As a result, the ECB will have to expand its QE program by another €500 billion in December, and, and maybe lower the interest rate on the euro.
In general, the prospects for easing monetary policy in Europe seemed to investors much more real and large-scale than in the United States for now, which entailed a strengthening of the dollar by 220 points this week, a fall in EUR/USD to the level of 1.1640 and the pair’s finish at 1.1645;
GBP/USD. Most experts (60%), together with graphical analysis on D1, had expected the pair to fall to 1.2860 within two to three weeks. However, it happened much faster: it found a local bottom at 1.2880 as early as on Thursday, October 29. And the reason for the fall of the pound is not so much in the increased risks of a second wave of coronavirus in the UK, but in Brexit, which remains the main topic in this case. And the situation in this case is not in favour of the British currency.
Market hopes that the deal with Europe will be reached by the X hour in December this year are dimming like morning fog over London. And as former Bank of England governor Mark Carney used to say, a no-deal Brexit would come as a shock to the country’s economy. And in anticipation of this shock, the pair set the last chord at 1.2950 after a week’s hike to the south and a correction to the upper border of the descending channel;
USD/JPY. As we expected, the meeting of the Bank of Japan on October 29 went without the slightest surprises. In a country whose currency is a safe haven and protection from financial storms, everything must remain calm and quiet.
More interesting is the tug of war between the dollar and the yen as safe haven currencies. And here, taking into account the pre-election and pandemic chaos in the US, 75% of experts, supported by 90% of oscillators and 100% of trend indicators on D1, preferred the Japanese currency as more stable. And they turned out to be right. As expected, having bounced off one significant level – 105.00, the pair made an attempt, the third one since July 31, to break through another significant level – support at 104.00. And again, it was unsuccessful. As a result, after the rebound, it returned to where it started from at the beginning of the five-day period, and completed the trading session at 104.65;
cryptocurrencies. The market is filled with optimism after payment giant PayPal announced the launch of features to buy, sell and store Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. Visa, Mastercard and American Express should follow his example in the next few months, such opinion was expressed in an interview with Bloomberg by CEO of cryptocurrency fund Galaxy Investment Mike Novogratz.
Against the backdrop of the bitcoin rally in the second half of October, the number of cryptocurrency “whales” began to increase. This is evidenced by the CoinMetrics data service. According to experts, the number of wallets containing more than 1000 coins has reached 2.2 thousand. Based on the current rate, it turns out that each of their owners now has a fortune of at least 13 million dollars!
On this positive wave, the bulls tried to break to a height of $14,000 on Wednesday October 28, however they were stopped at $13,830. The next attempt followed on Thursday night, but was even less successful : the maximum was fixed at $13,615. The bulls gave up after the third unsuccessful attempt, the BTC/USD pair rolled back down, and it is consolidating in the $13,300 zone by the evening of Friday October 30.
Following the growth of quotations on October 28, the total capitalization of the crypto market began to grow, rising from $390 billion to $410 billion. However, a rollback in the value of the main coin by the end of the week caused the closure of short-term positions and its sale, as a result of which the market returned to its starting point in the area of $388 billion.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index also returned to its original position: to around 74, at the very border of the last quarter of the scale. Recall that level 74 corresponds to the average indicator of greed, when opening short positions is still dangerous. But the range from 75 to 100 is designated by the developers of the index as “Extreme Greed”, which corresponds to the pair BTC/USD being strongly overbought and foreshadows its correction.
As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the views of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:
EUR/USD. So, the head of the ECB Christine Lagarde made it clear that her bank is ready to ease its monetary policy from next month. On the other hand, Donald Trump also speaks of possible support for the US economy. But the latter has elections on Tuesday, November 03, and all his rhetoric, as well as the rhetoric of his rival Joe Biden, can still be attributed to pre-election communications. it is hard to predict now what will happen in the US in reality, unlike in the Old World.
It is just as difficult to predict what will happen with the pandemic. It was said at the beginning of the review that the current White House administration is very much counting on vaccinations and a medical solution to the problem. However, the situation may deteriorate sharply until this happens and the stock indices will go down, as it happened last spring.
Then, against the backdrop of falling stock markets, the Fed began to flood the fire with cheap money, cut the interest rate, which led to the weakening of the American currency and the growth of the EUR/USD pair by more than 1300 points. Now, the EU is ahead of the United States in its measures of quantitative easing and the introduction of quarantine restrictions, which launched a sale in the euro last week and allowed the dollar to grow. However, it is clear that the weekly increase in USD by 220 points and the fall of 1300 points since March are two incomparable things.
The main US elections are scheduled for next week. And, in case of Joe Biden’s victory, and thanks to rising stocks of American companies and encouraging vaults from the front of the fight against COVID-19, the euro can very quickly regain its lost ground. We should also pay attention to the meeting of the US Fed on Friday, November 06. And even not so much to its decision on the interest rate, which will hughly likely remain unchanged, as to the Fed’s comment on monetary policy, which, it is possible, will already take into account the results of the presidential election.
Of course, as usual, data on the number of new jobs outside the US agricultural sector (NFP) will be released on the first Friday of the month. But, against the background of the above-mentioned events, it is unlikely they will have any serious impact on quotes.
In the meantime, giving a forecast for the coming week, the majority of experts (65%) are looking south. The nearest support is the September 25 low 1.1610, the next target is zone 1.1500. This development is supported by graphical analysis on D1, 100% of trend indicators and 75% of oscillators on H4 and D1. But the remaining 25% of oscillators are already giving strong signals about the pair being oversold and the upcoming correction. The most likely rebound zone is 1.1600, the targets are 1.1700, 1.1750, 1.1830 and 1.1880;
GBP/USD. A number of experts do not exclude that the Bank of England may announce the next measures aimed at supporting the country’s economy at the nearest meeting on Thursday, November 05. The list of possible steps includes an increase in bond purchases to £850 billion, and a decrease in the interest rate, which is 0.1% today. The last step is unlikely, though.
The British currency is likely to remain under pressure until the meeting of the Bank of England. But we should not forget about the unresolved issue on the terms of Brexit, which will also push the GBP/USD pair down. That is why, giving the forecast for November, the majority of analysts (60%) sided with bears, heralding the pair a further decline first to support 1.2860 and then 100 points lower. The final goal is the September 23 low at 1.2675. Exactly the same picture is drawn by graphical analysis on D1. 70% of technical indicators on both timeframes, H4 and D1, are also colored red.
A diametrically opposite position is now taken by 40% of experts. And here it should be noted that when switching to forecasting until the end of the year, the number of bulls’ supporters increases to 70%. Apparently, the market still hopes that at the most critical moment the Brexit deal with the EU will be agreed and signed. The nearest resistance is zone 1.3000. It is followed by levels 1.3080, 1.3175 and 1.3265;
USD/JPY. Now this pair is sandwiched between two very strong levels – 104.00 and 105.00, and its further movement depends on the risk sentiment of investors. And those, in turn, depend on what will happen in the United States in the coming week.
65% of experts, supported by 85% of indicators and graphical analysis on D1, believe that the pair will make another attempt to break through 104.00 support. But only 30 per cent are confident that it will be able to reach the 103.00 zone.
The same graphical analysis for the first half of November draws the lateral movement in the corridor 104.00-105.00. In case of breaking through its upper boundary, the pair has a chance to gain a foothold in the next echelon, 105.00-105.80, and possibly reach the height of 106.10. However, the chances of doing so are currently estimated at only 15%;
cryptocurrencies. It has been repeatedly discussed how the change in ownership of the White House could affect the cryptocurrency market. The election of the President of the United States is pretty soon. And here it is impossible not to mention the fact that on Wednesday, October 28, Donald Trump’s campaign website was attacked by hackers – followers of the Monero cryptocurrency. As a result, an advertisement for this altcoin and a statement by attackers that the Trump administration was allegedly involved in the emergence of the coronavirus, and that Trump himself was involved in criminal activity and cooperation with foreigners to manipulate the upcoming elections, appeared in the About Us section of the website.
In addition to the election results, other factors contribute to the uncertainty in the prospects for bitcoin. So, according to analysts at Glassnode, stock markets and other external factors have practically ceased to affect the BTC rate, which is now more focused on the internal environment, and investors are still trying to figure out its new policy. At the same time, Glassnode believes that the asset has every chance to take new barriers in the future.
Having prophesied the imminent decline of cryptocurrency in the past, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor now claims to be ready to hold bitcoin for at least 100 years. The company led by Saylor has invested $425 million in bitcoin over the past months. According to him, having considered the available options for preserving capital amid the economic uncertainty in the world, MicroStrategy has concluded that bitcoin is the best long-term store of value. Saylor is sure that even gold does not compare with this cryptocurrency. In his opinion, people who hold $100 million in fiat will lose 99% of the value of their assets in 100 years, and investments in gold will, at best, bring 85% of the loss.
Specialists from the American investment bank JPMorgan have also preferred bitcoin. In their view, BTC outperforms gold as an alternative currency and has a substantially better chance of continued growth. According to their new report, the capitalization of the crypto market is not large enough yet as digital currencies are chosen mainly by millennials. The older generation prefers more tangible assets, particularly gold. Despite this, however, bitcoin has significant potential for long-term growth as millennials will become “an increasingly important component of the investment space” over time.
JPMorgan estimates that the physical gold market, including ETF backed by it, is $2.6 trillion. Bitcoin needs to raise its current value of around $13,000 10 times to equal the precious metal in this respect.
The previous positive outlook was confirmed by the founders of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini brothers, saying that the BTC/USD pair will reach $500,000 sooner or later. “The question isn’t whether bitcoin will cost $500,000 or not, the question is how quickly it will happen. In fact, even this assessment seems to me very conservative – the game has not really even started,” said Cameron Winklevoss.
If we turn to the forecast for the near future, the majority of analysts (60%) believes that the BTC/USD pair will continue to attack the resistance of $14,000. But it is only 25% of analysts that say that this assault will end in luck and the pair will be able to gain a foothold in the $15,000 zone by the end of the year. The probability of reaching a height of $16,000 is estimated today at only 10%. But the possibility of quotes returning to $12,000 increases to 40%.
