First, a review of last week’s events:
EUR/USD. We have repeatedly written about the ECB’s fear of strengthening the euro as it poses a threat to the recovery of the Eurozone economy. However, neither the head of the ECB Christine Lagarde nor her colleagues want to start a currency war with the US Federal Reserve. Therefore, try to turn the market around not by actions, but by words.
The minutes of the September meeting of the ECB were to convince investors that, saving the economy from the second wave of COVID-19, the regulator could in the near future expand the quantitative easing (QE) program, and even reduce interest rates. And, judging by the quotes, at first the market believed in all this: EUR/USD pair went down, and the dollar went into growth. But all this did not last long: having lost about 80 points and reaching the 1.1725 zone, the pair turned around and went north again, ending the five-day period at 1.1825. As a result, it returned to the central zone of the side channel 1710-1.1920, the boundaries of which were outlined at the very beginning of August.
Most likely, such a change in trend is associated with forecasts regarding the results of the US presidential elections on November 3. Expectations of Joe Biden’s victory pulled up the stock market and triggered another fall in the American currency. So, the S&P500 rose by 265 points in a week and a half, and the dollar shrunk by 210 points in two weeks. Although, it’s likely that everything is built on emotions. And it is unlikely that anyone can explain why Biden will be better and more useful for the U.S. economy than Trump;
GBP/USD. In general, the dynamics of this pair repeats the movements of EUR / USD, which suggests that everything depends not on the behavior of the common European or British currencies, but on the US dollar at the moment.
Macro statistics characterizing the state of the British economy turned all red. Data from the construction sector, industrial production, GDP – everything went into negative territory. There has been no particular progress in the Brexit negotiations. But the market did not react to these data in any way. And, if we look at the results of the week, the pound, albeit a little, bypassed the dollar, having strengthened by over 100 points. This is due to the growth of the US stock market, which caused a general weakening of the American currency (the DXY index fell from 94.64 on September 25 to 93.06 on October 09). The GBP/USD pair placed the finishing chord at the1.3045, in the Pivot Point zone of the last ten weeks;
USD/JPY. Only 15% of analysts voted for the growth of this pair in the previous forecast. However, at the beginning of the week it listened to them and went north to the zone 106.00. Apparently, investors did not want to seek refuge in the quiet Japanese harbor and preferred risky sentiments. However, the situation calmed down a bit, the pair switched to a sideways trend, and it returned to the area where it had repeatedly stayed from September 25 to October 07 at the end of the week – to the zone 105.60. So the result of the last two weeks can be safely called zero;
cryptocurrencies. Maybe bitcoin has already become a full-fledged protective asset? Many experts and investors ask this question. Indeed, it cannot jump over the $11,000 mark for the fifth week in a row, but it does not go down either, forming an “ascending triangle” pattern.
Its quotes were not affected either by the infection of the family of President Trump with the coronavirus, or hacker attacks, or attacks by regulators. How did Bitcoin react to the fact that the American CFTC regulator, together with the federal prosecutor’s office, accused one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges BitMEX of financial fraud? It didn’t! Or here’s the news of the theft of $200-350 million worth of crypto assets from the KuCoin Hong Kong exchange. Previously, it would have caused the effect of an exploding bomb. And now there is silence.
There is no need to talk about the arrest of the creator of the well-known antivirus McAfee, who became famous in the crypto world for his scandalous predictions and bets. Well, John McAfee (by the way, a former US presidential candidate from the Libertarian Party) avoided paying taxes with the help of cryptocurrencies. So what? The news is curious of course. But this is not a reason to drop the bitcoin rate.
The volatility of the main cryptocurrency has reached its lowest level in the last two years. A report from the CoinMeitrcs analytical service team says that against this backdrop, investors prefer to keep coins rather than sell them. The build-up intensified after the March collapse. Investors have been transferring bitcoins from exchanges to so-called cold wallets in recent months, reflecting their desire to switch to long-term storage of cryptocurrency. The number of addresses holding BTC for more than one year reached its highest level in a decade last month – 63.5% of bitcoins have not moved anywhere since the autumn of 2019.
Last week, BTC/USD pair, not falling below $10,500, made another attempt to break the resistance of $11,000, which is generally consistent with the scenario proposed by our experts. At the time of writing this forecast, the main cryptocurrency is quoted at $11,100. However, it is unclear whether it will be able to gain a foothold in this zone, since Saturday and Sunday are ahead, when strong price movements can occur in the thin market.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization grew from $330 billion to $349 billion in seven days. Moreover, this chart is very similar to the BTC/USD chart, which once again reminds of which coin dominates this market. As for the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, it is at 48, almost in the very center of the scale. Note that, since the first days of September, this index has never gone beyond the central zone, staying in the range from 40 to 50, which is fully consistent with the current low volatility of the BTC/USD pair and confirms the close correlation of these two indicators.
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 next election of the President of the United States is getting closer, hour X is scheduled for November 03. But what can it change radically? In theory, we are talking about the normalization of monetary policy, which should strengthen the US currency. But in practice, the Fed’s capabilities are already severely limited.
The Wall Street Journal estimates that most analysts (57%) believe that no matter who ends up in the White House, the labor market will not be able to return to full employment until 2023 at the earliest. And this increases the likelihood of a weakening dollar and further growth of the pair EUR/USD. And here it is again just right to start talking about the currency conflict between the Fed and the ECB.
As already mentioned, the European Central Bank does not like a weak dollar and a strong euro at all, and it would be glad if the pair turned south. Among the arguments that can convince investors to do this, experts most often refer to the serious deterioration of the epidemiological situation with COVID-19 in Europe, as well as negative forecasts on the state of the Old World economy, which could lead to an expansion of stimulus measures by the ECB, including an interest rate cut and a build-up to the QE program.
And another strongest factor is the growth of the US stock market. As long as it grows. But if suddenly, on the eve of or following the results of the presidential election, investors begin to massively fix profits, this will lead to a sharp rise in the dollar and a fall in the euro and other currencies.
Among the most important and interesting events of the coming week, one can note the speeches of the head of the ECB Christine Lagarde on October 12 and 13, the publication of macro statistics on the US consumer market on October 13 and 16, as well as the debate of the candidates for the President of the United States, which will be held at the end of the working week, on Friday October 16
– EUR/USD. 100% of the trend indicators on H4 and D1 are colored green. Among the oscillators, the majority (75%) also point north, but 25% are already giving signals that the pair is overbought. Graphical analysis indicates that the pair will move in the 1710-1.1920 channel for the next few days, after which it will drop to the lows of September 25-28 in the 1.1600 zone. As for the experts, most of them (60%) believe that the pair, before going down, will first rise to the upper boundary of the specified channel. The remaining 40% expect it to fall sharply to 1.1600;
GBP/USD. Here, as in the case of other currencies, the forecast is based on the growth and fall of investors’ risk appetites. GBR100 was able to grow following the American indices. And if the US stock markets continue to rise and the dollar to fall, then the GBP/USD pair will continue to grow. If mass profit-taking starts on stock markets in the run-up to the presidential election in America, then we can expect a downward turn. A lull, accordingly, will cause a lull.
As for technical and graphic analyses, their readings also coincide with those of their “colleagues” in the EUR/USD pair. The cancellation of the correlation of these two pairs can occur only for two reasons: 1) if something extraordinary happens in the negotiations between the EU and the UK on Brexit, or 2) if the ECB nevertheless decides to take decisive new steps to support the Eurozone economy, and the Bank of England, as they say , “remain as is”, that is, does not take any additional incentive measures. The next speech by the head of this regulator, Andrew Bailey, is scheduled for Monday, October 12, and it is not excluded that he will outline the priorities of the Bank of England for the next period.
As was said, the pair finished last week in the medium-term Pivot Point zone at the 1.3045 horizon. The nearest support is 1.3000, the next ones are 1.2840, 1.2760 and 1.2675. Resistance levels are 1.3120, 1.3185 and 1.3265;
USD/JPY. Considering the result of the past two weeks, there is no clarity with the near future for this pair, and the opinion of experts (50% to 50%) does not allow any conclusions to be drawn. Although, if you look at the readings of graphical analysis and oscillators on D1, the advantage is still with the bulls, and there is an opportunity for the pair to rise first to the resistance of 106.00, then to 106.40, and finally to the height of 107.20.
If we go from the weekly scenario to the monthly one, then there is a clear advantage among analysts, on the contrary, on the side of the bears. 70% of them expect the yen to strengthen and the pair to decline to the September 21 low at 104.00. Supports are 105.00 and 104.45;
cryptocurrencies. Stock indexes rose and the BTC/USD pair grew last week, which gave the reason to once again talk about the correlation of bitcoin with S&P500 and Dow Jones. However, some reputable experts believe that this dependence is temporary.
So, the CEO of the venture capital company Social Capital Chamat Palihapitiya said in an interview with CNBC that he still sees bitcoin as a hedge against the modern financial system. “At a fundamental level, BTC does not correlate with traditional markets because it is based on a set of beliefs that are exactly the opposite of the attitudes that govern the modern world. This is the insurance I use to sleep well at night in case the central banks and world authorities come across a bomb,” Palihapitiya said.
According to experts from one of the shareholders of Tesla, the ARK Invest fund, the capitalization of bitcoin may exceed $5 trillion. This will take the coin up to 10 years, but massive investments can start earlier. This figure could reach $1 trillion in the next 5 years, after which growth will occur at a faster rate. This will also affect the value of the asset. So, according to Bobby Lee, a member of the board of directors of the Bitcoin Foundation, the price of the main coin can reach $500 thousand by 2028.
The forecast of Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone is also interesting. In his opinion, the rate of bitcoin can exceed $100k within 5 years. The logic here is simple: in 2011 BTC was worth about $10, in 2013 – $1,000, and it took four years to reach the $10,000 mark in 2017. That is, the growth rates are slowing down, and it will take not four, but eight years to conquer the next peak. Given that three of them have already passed, BTC will reach $100K by 2025. Mike McGlone also expects BTC to return to 2019 highs of $14,000 by the end of this year.
As for the generalized forecast for the coming week, compared to the previous one, it shifted 500 points higher: the main support is expected at $10,500, the resistance at $11,500. The probability of a confident breakout of the $ 12,000 level is still estimated by analysts at only 10%.
