First, a review of last week’s events:
EUR/USD. The U.S. economy continues to recover vigorously. The S&P500 index renews another high, the value of American Treasuries is growing and, accordingly, their yield is falling. And the dollar is falling along with it.
However, the market, for the most part, is reacting not to real numbers for the last week and a half, but to forecasts and promises. As already mentioned, the US economy is growing. But the head of the US Federal Reserve said that although the March statistics on the labor market is impressive, it is not enough to even start discussions on the curtailment of fiscal stimulus programs. According to Jerome Powell, this requires several more months of such positive results.
His colleagues agree with him. So, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary Daly noted that the US economy is still very far from the recovery, and the Fed will wait until this happens. And the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, said that one should not even think about changes in the US monetary policy until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as for the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, there are more and more vigorous statements of EU officials about the imminent termination of lockdowns and the unprecedented growth of the Eurozone economy. And in spite of the calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for tighter isolation, optimistic data on industrial production in this country are cited.
As a result of all these verbal battles, the scales tipped to the side of the euro. As predicted by most experts, the EUR/USD pair went up, rising to the height of 1.1930 on Thursday, April 08. This was followed by a correction and a finish at 1.1900;
GBP/USD. Problems after the UK’s exit from the EU, an impressive trade deficit and the country’s budget deficit continue to put pressure on the pound. And even the dollar, which has weakened against other currencies, does not allow the GBP/USD pair to return to growth. We see how the British currency, step by step, is losing ground starting from February 24. Last week the pair was able to grow only to 1.3920. This was followed by a reversal and, as predicted by graphical analysis, it dropped to the level of 1.3670. As for the final chord, it sounded at the height of 1.3710;
USD/JPY. It has been repeatedly written that the rate of this pair is greatly influenced by the yield of US Treasuries. Fluctuations in the yield of these securities allowed the yen to straighten its shoulders a little and win back 165 points from the dollar in the first four days of the week, dropping to 109.00. However, then the strength of the bears dried up, and the pair ended the five-day period at the level of 109.65;
cryptocurrencies. The overwhelming majority of analysts (70%) gave a negative forecast for the BTC/USD pair last week, expecting it to move towards $50,000. This is exactly what happened, and the fall of bitcoin on Wednesday to $55,540 made many talk about the beginning of new “crypto freezes”. Fortunately for investors, the panic was premature and the pair returned to the $58,000 zone on Friday. However, the question of why the main cryptocurrency failed to gain a foothold above $60,000 remains open.
One of the versions is a drop in demand from large institutional investors. But, as is clear from the statistics of crypto exchanges, “whales” continue to withdraw cryptocurrency to cold wallets. And therefore, they expect its growth to continue.
The miners’ actions are also indicative of their bullish sentiment. They switched to hoarding coins in April, creating a shortage in the market. The movement of cryptocurrency from miners to crypto exchanges has decreased by almost 40%: from 450 bitcoins per day in March to 275 in the first decade of April. Naturally, such a shortage of supply should push the price up. Suffice it to recall that the BTC/USD pair rose from $19,000 to $30,000 in a similar situation the previous time.
In the meantime, just as bitcoin cannot take the $60,000 height by storm, the total market capitalization cannot step over the $2.0 trillion bar either, once approaching it, once moving away. At the time of writing this review, on Friday April 09, it has once again come close to this important psychological level, reaching a volume of $1.990 billion. As for the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, it has changed only by 4 points during the week, having fallen from 74 to 70.
It should be noted that the share of bitcoin in the total crypto market capitalization is continuously decreasing: if it was 62% on March 14, then it was only 55% on April 09. This is undoubtedly due to the lack of positive price dynamics for BTC/USD. Speculators are switching to other instruments, which allow making serious profits at the moment. And here the ripple should be noted.
When the ripple fell to $0.170 at the very end of December 2020 due to the claims of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), many gave up on it. However, on April 7, at the high, the price of this altcoin reached $1.108, showing a 550% gain since the the year started. Its capitalization also grew during this time, rising from 1.40% to 2.42%. The reason for this rally, especially in the last week, was the news that ripple’s lawyers have gained access to the SEC documents and are making serious progress in litigation with this powerful regulator.
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. As is said in the first part of the review, the statements of the US Federal Reserve leaders, the growth of the stock market and the fall in the yield of US Treasury bonds are important factors. But they are limited in time. So is the falling dollar. And at some point, everything can turn 180 degrees. The higher the US stock indices soar – Nasdaq, Dow Jones, S&P500, the more frequent talk about “soap bubbles” that are about to burst. Investors borrowed a record $814 billion secured by their own portfolios by the end of February 2021. And this is 49% more than a year ago. A similar situation resulted in the collapse of the stock market and in the economic crisis in 2008.
But until this happens, the attractiveness of the dollar continues to decline, which plays into the hands of low-income currencies and, first of all, the euro. The dollar is not facilitated by the confrontation between Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate over the scale of further fiscal stimulus either.
Of course, a way out of this political stalemate will be found, and there will be more clarity about the results of vaccinations and the speed of recovery of the US and Eurozone economies. But according to forecasts of 65% of experts, the EUR/USD pair will continue its growth in the coming week. This scenario is supported by 75% of oscillators and 85% of trend indicators on H4. The advantage of the “greens” is much weaker on D1, here it is only 65% of technical indicators that point to the growth of the pair. At the same time, 15% of oscillators are painted neutral gray, and 20% already give signals about the pair being overbought.
As for the graphical analysis, it shows movement in the 1.1835-1.1950 trading range on H4, the range is, of course, wider on D1: first, the pair goes down to the lower border in the 1.1700 zone, and then rises to the 1.2000 height. It should be noted that in the transition from weekly to monthly forecast, 55% of analysts vote for the decline of the pair to the horizon of 1.1700.
As for the events of the coming week, we should pay attention to inflation indicators and data on the US consumer market (due out on April 13, 15 and 16), Eurozone (April 12) and Germany (April 15) . Also of interest is the speech of the head of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell on Wednesday April 14;
GBP/USD. At the moment, the absolute advantage for this pair is on the side of the bears. 85% of oscillators and 100% trend indicators on H4 are painted red. On D1 it is 85% and 80%, respectively. 65% of analysts also vote for the further fall of the pair. The nearest support is 1.3670, the target is a transition to the zone 1.3575-1.3610. Graphical analysis on D1 also draws the continuation of the downward trend. However, according to its forecast, the pair may rise to the resistance level of 1.3900 before heading south.
Even though the sell-off of the pound continues, many analysts note that the long-term uptrend, which began on March 20, 2020, has not been affected. And the fall of the last 6 weeks can be considered as a correction, after which the British currency may continue its growth. The pound will regain its attractiveness, especially if large capital that left it due to Brexit begins to return to the country. The pound is also supported by the successes of the early stages of vaccination against COVID-19. In this case, according to 70% of experts, the GBP/USD pair has many chances to regain its lost positions and return first to the 1.4000 zone, and then retest the February 24 high at 1.4240 before the end of spring;
USD/JPY. Back in early March, the volumes of purchases of futures contracts for the yen exceeded sales. But the fast pace of the US economic recovery has changed everything. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the number of short contracts on Japanese currency began to grow since mid-March, reaching record values since January 2019.
At the moment, despite the confusion in the indicators’ readings, the majority of experts (65%), supported by graphical analysis on H4, expect further weakening of the yen and the return of the USD/JPY pair, first to the level of 111.00, and then its rise another 100 points higher, to the level of 112.00.
The remaining 35% of analysts are looking south, expecting to see how the pair will test 108.40 support. Moreover, when moving to the monthly forecast, the number of bear supporters increases to 60%, and the target shifts to the zone 105.00-106.20.
As for the events of the coming week, one can note the speech of the head of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda on Wednesday April 14, from which the market will wait for signals regarding the monetary policy of the regulator for the near future. Recall that the Bank of Japan has not been able to decide how to respond to rising yields on US securities and what to do with its own. If the yield on 10-year US bonds and commodity prices continue to rise, and the regulator does not respond to this, it could hit the yen even harder. And it has already suffered quite tangible losses, having lost more about 700 points to the dollar over the past three months.
cryptocurrencies. The news background of the past week was quite versatile. Thus, the investment bank Morgan Stanley has filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to which 12 funds of the bank will be able to invest in BTC. Each of the funds indicated in the application will be able to place up to 25% of the capital in the first cryptocurrency. And that’s good for investors.
On the other hand, the billionaire and founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, declared out of the sudden that bitcoin has become an instrument of China’s policy and is increasingly hitting the dollar. That is why, according to Peter Thiel, the US government should attend to the regulation of this benchmark cryptocurrency. It should be noted that this businessman previously supported bitcoin, and now one needs to understand who or what made him change his mind. And if the wind blows from the White House, this is a very negative signal for the cryptocurrency market.
As for the forecasts, experts of another large world bank, JPMorgan, called the long-term target for the bitcoin rate of $130,000, having lowered the bar from $146,000 due to the fall in gold quotes. Analysts made such a forecast based on the calculation of the theoretical capitalization of the first cryptocurrency in case of an influx of funds from the market of precious metals.
In general, the topic of comparing bitcoin with gold, for which cryptocurrency is becoming a digital alternative, sounds more and more often. Many bitcoin bulls in the expert environment say that BTC will be able to bypass gold in terms of capitalization in the future. In this case, the value of all bitcoins should grow 10 times and exceed the $11 trillion mark. And according to analysts at Ark Invest, that could happen within the next few years. “We believe that bitcoin is better than gold and it’s safe to say that it will capture a gold market share or even more.”
Billionaire and founder of the crypto bank Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz agrees with the forecast of Ark Invest. He stated In a comment for CNBC that he was shocked by the pace of digital asset adoption. The investor also admitted his previous forecast of the price of the first cryptocurrency of $60,000 too conservative. “Bitcoin is on the inevitable path to reaching and exceeding the capitalization of gold,” said Novogratz.
Quite an astronomical forecast was given by the author of the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, investor and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki. He suggested in a recent interview that the first cryptocurrency could reach a value of $1.2 million in the next five years. Kiyosaki first bought bitcoin last year after the pandemic effectively shackled the global economy. It was then trading at $9,000. “I wish I could buy it for 10 cents, like many people did, but I still look like a genius because today it costs about $55,000. I think that in another five years it will grow to $1.2 million,” the entrepreneur announced.
At the same time, even though Kiyosaki, opposite to Peter Thiel, has turned into a defender of bitcoin, he still prefers gold and silver for main investments, explaining this by the fact that the cryptocurrency is outside the regulatory field.
And finally, at the end of the review, another crypto life hack. This time, it’s about how to make money without “mining”, without buying or selling cryptocurrency. After all, it turns out that it is enough just to look into the future and register a promising Internet address in time in order to become a millionaire. So, domain name registrar GoDaddy put up Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com domain for sale for $100 million earlier last week. However, this time the deal fell through: upon discovering the ad, the owner declared that it was “100% fake” and demanded to remove the domain from sale. But this does not mean that you will not be able to earn a tidy sum at other addresses. After all, there are still so many promising cryptocurrencies in the world besides bitcoin.
