- SWFX market sentiment is 71% bullish
- Pending orders in the 100-pip range are 66% to BUY
- Minor US data
Thursday has shown even more gains from the US Dollar's side, as the USD/JPY pair has booked new heights. In general, it could have been noticed that the currency pair was likely to surge higher. However, the larger scale charts had become confusing.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed higher final GDP in the Q4 2017, however the market remained almost unchanged. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a growth of 2.9%, surpassing the expectations and following a 3.2% growth rate recorded in the previous period.
One of the main reasons for the US economy to expand more than forecast is the increase in consumer spending.
Minor data releases on Thursday
12:30 GMT is the time to do fundamental risk management. The reason is that at that time there will be various minor impact data releases published at 12:30 GMT.
Namely, from the US Dollar's side the impact might be created by the Core PCE Price Index, US Personal Spending and Unemployment Claims. However, Dukascopy analytics team will cover another data release, which is set to occur at the same time.
The Canadian GDP monthly data will be released at the time, and our USD/CAD daily review analyst will be on the release and available for live questions on the bank's webinar platform ten minutes prior to the release. Tune in at 12:20 GMT to join the coverage.
USD/JPY likely to approach 106.00
The US Dollar rallied significantly against the Yen on Wednesday, seemingly being supported by a decrease in risk sentiment. The pair gained 1.43% throughout the day until it reversed at the psychological 107.00 mark.Bears managed to re-gain some of their lost positions during the Asian session, thus pushing the rate towards the upper boundary of the previously-breached channel. The same bearish sentiment is likely to dominate the market today.
The Greenback could target a support cluster formed by the 55– and 200-hour SMAs near 105.80. This level should likewise mark the ultimate low for today.
Conversely, bulls might still try to use the slight potential up to the 107.40 level where the monthly PP and the weekly R2 are located.
Hourly Chart
Meanwhile, the daily chart shows that there is a very strong resistance cluster near the 107.30 mark. Namely, by the time that the cluster is reached it will consist of the weekly R2, monthly PP, 55-day SMA and the upper trend line of a speculated medium term channel down pattern.
This combined with the fact that the lower trend line of the most recent version of the most dominant channel down pattern has not been touched means that there still might be a descent upcoming in the near future.
Daily chart
SWFX traders are still on the long side, as 71% of open positions were bullish during the morning hours. Moreover, trader set up orders remain bullish, as 54% of trader set up orders were to buy the US Dollar in favour to the Japanese Yen.
Meanwhile, the market sentiment of OANDA traders remains strongly bullish with 68% long positions. In addition, Saxo bank traders are 55% bullish in regards to this pair.
Spreads (avg, pip) / Trading volume / Volatility