Forex Signals Brief for Aug 18: Rates in Focus

Posted Wednesday, August 18, 2021 by
Rowan Crosby • 2 min read

The USD is Busy

US Wrap

For the first time in quite a while, Wall Street ended the session in the red and risk assets finally slowed down as the focus turns back towards interest rates.

While there was no direct catalyst (besides some weakish data), it does appear there are growing concerns that markets are getting a little overheated. The SPX fell by nearly 1%, which also led to some upside in the USD.

Bitcoin continues to be a big focus and so far it appears the bears are stepping up there as well as price wasn’t able to retest recent highs.

Looking at the metals and we can see that there is a bit more buying here as well as the move back into GOLD continues to gather momentum.

The Data Agenda

Interestingly, we are all focused on New Zealand this morning as the chances of the first central bank rate hike appear to be very high. After the RBNZ slashed rates to record low levels, in now looks like things are about to change with a hike from 0.25% to 0.5% on the agenda. This is important as it could be the catalyst for others to follow.

Interestingly, we do have the FOMC minutes out later today, but so far Powell has made it clear that rates are not rising yet.

In Europe, we have CPI out of the UK and Eurozone, which are, of course, the main reason why rates should be rising.

Forex Signal Update

The FX Leaders Team hit 2 winners from 4 trades yesterday, and we currently have three open positions.

XRP – Active Signal

XRP has certainly been volatile lately and price looks like it is on the back foot for now. Price couldn’t break $1.30 and so far we are back towards support at $1.10.

Gold – Watching

GOLD continues to crawl back towards the $1800 level, and we long here. This could be an interesting 24 hours in the metals.

Cryptocurrency Update

BTC has dropped the key support level at $46,000 and is on the slide.

We’re now going to look towards $44,000, over the next 24 hours as the major support level. As we know, anything can happen and the entire sector is very volatile at the moment.