- SWFX market sentiment is 71% bullish
- Pending orders in the 100-pip range are 53% to SELL
- Powell testifies again
The support levels identified on Wednesday did not held their ground. Instead a decline has occurred. Due to the nature of the piercing of the support levels, it is expected that this is a return to the medium and long term descent.
The US economy grew in line with the forecast of 2.5% in the final quarter of 2017. It was the slowest growth rate in three quarters, as businesses invested less in equipment and inventories.
The US Dollar remained on a strong foothold, following the expressed optimism from Powell about economic conditions in the US. In the meantime, with inflation getting higher and continuously well performing economy, analysts expect the Fed to raise rates more than 3 times this year.
Powell's speech and a PMI
The economic calendars are showing that Jerome Powell is set to speak once more in front of the Congress. Meanwhile, a rather minor data release will occur at the same time.
The ISM Manufacturing PMI is set to be published at 15:00 GMT. Note that tit is the exact time, as the text of the Federal Reserve's Chairman's will published. Due to that reason the fluctuations could be massive as on Tuesday.
The data release will be covered by the Dukascopy research team on the bank's live webinar platform. The coverage is set to start ten minutes before the release.
The data release will be covered by the Dukascopy research team on the bank's live webinar platform. The coverage is set to start ten minutes before the release. To join the webinar one needs to click on the notification that should pop up a minute before the start on all of the bank's trading platforms. On the other hand joining is possible at any time by either googling Dukascopy webinars or finding them in the TV section.
USD/JPY breaks support levels
The support level described on Wednesday did not manage to hold its ground. As a result one can spot a large, red hourly candle on the USD/JPY currency pair's charts.Although, the sudden drop was stopped by a medium scale pattern's lower trend line, which on Thursday was acting as a resistance.
Meanwhile, the large scale descending channel was once more adjusted, as its exact borders have been mysterious during this week.
However, most attention should be given to the newly spotted channel down pattern, which might guide the pair lower. That would occur after a resistance cluster is met just below the 107.00 mark.
Hourly Chart
As there have been more than one adjustment to the long term descending pattern. It can be stated that there might be bias at play from a technical perspective.
Namely, due to the couple of variations of how the pattern can be drawn, there are fluctuations in various descending patterns, depending on who is at play in the market at the time. However, the trend is still downwards aimed in most long term scenarios.
Daily chart
SWFX traders are on the long side, as 72% of open positions were bullish during the morning hours. However, 53% of pending orders are to sell the Greenback.
Meanwhile, the market sentiment of OANDA traders remains strongly bullish with 68% long positions. In addition, the Saxo Bank's published market sentiment is 59% long
Spreads (avg, pip) / Trading volume / Volatility