Forex Signals Brief for Aug 19: No Time to Taper
US Wrap
All the focus yesterday, was on the Fed Minutes and it remains clear that they are in no rush to taper.
If there is no tapering taking place, it’s also not likely that we’ll be seeing any rate hikes ahead of schedule. That’s despite the raging inflation and an improving jobs situation.
The minutes helped the sell-down in equities with the SPX putting in yet another red day. Meanwhile, we are starting to see the USD really get bid up strongly, and that will likely keep the pressure on the majors over the course of the day.
The Data Agenda
After the non-taper talk yesterday, the attention today will be on the state of US jobs with weekly unemployment claims the main data point of note. We are expecting to see this number continue to slide lower, but there are still millions that are receiving weekly benefits.
We also have the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for August which can at times be a market mover.
Forex Signal Update
The FX Leaders Team hit 1 winner from 3 trades, with plenty of action in GOLD as we might expect with the release of the Fed Minutes.
XRP – Active Signal
XRP has fallen away heavily in the past 24 hours and did find support at $1.10 in the end. We remain long.
Silver –Active Signal
With a rising USD and the Fed not prepared to act on inflation, we are short SILVER. The longer-term prospects remain bullish, but the price action has been weak short-term.
Cryptocurrency Update
BTC has been weak along with the entire sector but is currently battling the $45,000 level.
I’m still watching support at $44,000, and we should note the commentary coming from Powell around Stablecoins is still something we need to be paying attention to.
You can also see our latest price forecast for Bitcoin and what we think it has in store for the remainder of 2021 and beyond.