Mixed session on the Old Continent, GBP sinks on Brexit concerns

Summary:

  • USD advances against most major currencies
  • No-deal Brexit fears hit GBP
  • UK100 moves significantly higher amid weak domestic currency
  • RBNZ to make its decision in the late evening

The key piece of data scheduled for Wednesday has been released in the morning and concerned trade figures from the Chinese economy. However, the day is not over and DOE report as well as RBNZ decision may impact the markets in the later part of the day. Equities in Europe are trading mixed with quite a noticeable gain seen on the UK stock market as domestic companies are being boosted by weaker pound. On the other hand, Russian companies are experiencing quite a heavy sell-off. On the FX market one can name JPY and USD as leaders among majors while earlier mentioned GBP and SEK are trading lower against most of its G10 peers. As the greenback is appreciating the precious metals are moving lower. Oil prices are also declining today. Apart from that, industrial metals are trading higher on the day with copper being the sole exception.

Wednesday draws quite a pessimistic picture of the cryptocurrency market with Bitcoin’s decline below the $6500 handle in the spotlight. Over the past 24 hours major virtual currencies pushed lower sending the capitalization of the whole market to around $230 billion. At the same time, the Bitcoin market capitalization sits a notch above $110 billion.

In spite of the fact that US traders took US indices close to their highs, European markets have begun Wednesday’s trading on a softer footnote. One explanation behind such a scenario might be quite a heavy decline in the Chinese Shanghai Composite which ended the day 1.3% lower even as the country’s trade data turned out to be quite reassuring.

The US dollar is giving back its prior gains while Chinese indices are trading mixed in the morning despite another robust session on Wall Street. The paramount event of the Asian session came from China as the trade data for July were released. Notice that the numbers are the first insight into the new reality after the US tariffs on $34 billion Chinese goods came into effect on 6 July.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has been keeping the level of interest rates unchanged since 10 November 2016 and this streak is likely to be extended this month as well. However, at its latest meeting at the end of June the RBNZ said that a change in rates might be either up or down (despite the ongoing tightening in the other parts of the world).

Bitcoin slumps below $6500 as bears take control over the market

Summary:

  • Another Swiss bank will offer services for cryptocurrency companies
  • Oleksandr Stelmakh, a member of the Ukraine Central Election Commission, considers using blockchain technology in elections
  • Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) has broken below the $6500 handle

Wednesday draws quite a pessimistic picture of the cryptocurrency market with Bitcoin’s decline below the $6500 handle in the spotlight. Over the past 24 hours major virtual currencies pushed lower sending the capitalization of the whole market to around $230 billion. At the same time, the Bitcoin market capitalization sits a notch above $110 billion. Today’s major topics concern the plans of one of the Swiss banks and news from Ukraine.

BITCOIN has experienced a heavy sell-off yesterday. The cryptocurrency is trading around the $6450 handle at press time. However, long lower wicks of the latest candlesticks suggest that the bears may have already got exhausted. Will Bitcoin bulls use this opportunity? Source: xStation5

Let’s move to Switzerland that is currently one of the countries with most crypto-friendly approach. Maerki Baumann, a Swiss bank, is said to be the second bank in the country to provide services for cryptocurrency companies. According to International Investment report, the Zurich-based bank has agreed to form partnership with crypto-related companies. As many governments around the world decided to take bold approach towards cryptocurrencies many banking institution stayed reluctant towards servicing firms connected to the digital assets. Therefore one can see that today’s news may allow executives of the Swiss crypto-related companies to relax. Maerki Baumann is the second bank in Switzerland offering such services after Falcon Private Bank decided to do so in the previous year.

RIPPLE is trading at fresh YTD lows around $0.345 handle.. The digital currency smashed through the support zone localized around $0.425 handle on Monday. With this technical hurdle out of the way bears pushed coin’s price even lower.. While most of the major cryptocurrencies have been underperforming as of late RIPPLE along with LITECOIN are clearly the weakest ones of them as they are the only ones to trade at lowest levels of the year. Source: xStation5

Oleksandr Stelmakh, a member of the Ukraine Central Election Commission, is exploring the potential application of the blockchain technology in elections. Stelmakh is testing the blockchain voting system created in cooperation with NEM Foundation group. The tests are still on the way therefore we might have to wait some time for the results. Let us recall that in the early days of cryptomania and blockchain hype the use of technology in the elections has been hailed as one of the optimal applications of this technology.

LITECOIN, just like RIPPLE, is trading at year’s low. The latest decline seems to be eased around the $65 handle. As we can see, the coin is clearly trading below 8- and 33-period moving averages on the H4 interval (purple and yellow lines on the chart) therefore the potential bounce may be limited by these technical obstacles. Source: xStation5

Economic calendar: Could NZD benefit from RBNZ decision?

Summary:

  • Reserve Bank of New Zealand meets this evening, the NZ dollar seems to be in a position to benefit from the event
  • DOE weekly release on US oil stocks should be closely watched by investors

Wednesday’s trading has been already dominated by the Asian newsflow and this is likely to continue during the rest of the day. The most important event in today’s calendar is undoubtedly the RBNZ meeting while commodity traders might eagerly look at the weekly DOE release on oil inventories.

3:30 pm BST – DOE oil inventories: Oil prices have had quite a volatile period of time. Firstly, they plunged from under $76 to below $72, and then bounced back meaningfully to around $74.5. Nevertheless, key technical levels have not been breached yet hence one may expect the price to keep moving within the broader range. On the fundamental side we got the news from the EIA that it lowered US crude production for 2019 to 11.7 mbpd from 11.8 mbpd expecting that output this year will reach 10.7 mbpd (fractionally down from 10.79 mbpd). In turn, the API reported that crude stocks slid as much as 6 million barrels exceeding the median estimate suggesting a 3.7 million barrels decrease. At the same time, gasoline inventories moved up 3.1 million barrels the number which aggravated the upbeat tone of the release. The consensus ahead of today’s release points to a 2.2 million barrels fall in terms of crude oil and a 1.8 million barrels slide when it comes to gasoline stocks.

10:00 pm BST – RBNZ meeting: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has been keeping the level of interest rates unchanged since 10 November 2016 as this streak is likely to be extended this month as well. At its latest meeting at the end of June the RBNZ said that a change in rates might be either up or down. The most dovish line sounded as follows “the best contribution we can make to maximising sustainable employment, and maintaining low and stable inflation, is to ensure the OCR is at an expansionary level for a considerable period”. This reference influenced some NZ-based banks to change their predictions with regard to the first rate hike citing a greater degree of “dovishness”. Today’s meeting will be yet more noteworthy as it will include updated macroeconomic projections followed by the press conference of governor Orr. Given that the NZ dollar has been sold out recently one may assume that the balance of risks seems to be tilted to the upside.

Central bankers’ speeches for today:

  • 1:45 pm BST – Fed’s Barkin
  • 11:00 pm BST – RBNZ’s Orr

Bitcoin slumps below $6500 as bears take control over the market

Summary:

  • Another Swiss bank will offer services for cryptocurrency companies
  • Oleksandr Stelmakh, a member of the Ukraine Central Election Commission, considers using blockchain technology in elections
  • Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) has broken below the $6500 handle

Wednesday draws quite a pessimistic picture of the cryptocurrency market with Bitcoin’s decline below the $6500 handle in the spotlight. Over the past 24 hours major virtual currencies pushed lower sending the capitalization of the whole market to around $230 billion. At the same time, the Bitcoin market capitalization sits a notch above $110 billion. Today’s major topics concern the plans of one of the Swiss banks and news from Ukraine.

BITCOIN has experienced a heavy sell-off yesterday. The cryptocurrency is trading around the $6450 handle at press time. However, long lower wicks of the latest candlesticks suggest that the bears may have already got exhausted. Will Bitcoin bulls use this opportunity? Source: xStation5

Let’s move to Switzerland that is currently one of the countries with most crypto-friendly approach. Maerki Baumann, a Swiss bank, is said to be the second bank in the country to provide services for cryptocurrency companies. According to International Investment report, the Zurich-based bank has agreed to form partnership with crypto-related companies. As many governments around the world decided to take bold approach towards cryptocurrencies many banking institution stayed reluctant towards servicing firms connected to the digital assets. Therefore one can see that today’s news may allow executives of the Swiss crypto-related companies to relax. Maerki Baumann is the second bank in Switzerland offering such services after Falcon Private Bank decided to do so in the previous year.

RIPPLE is trading at fresh YTD lows around $0.345 handle.. The digital currency smashed through the support zone localized around $0.425 handle on Monday. With this technical hurdle out of the way bears pushed coin’s price even lower.. While most of the major cryptocurrencies have been underperforming as of late RIPPLE along with LITECOIN are clearly the weakest ones of them as they are the only ones to trade at lowest levels of the year. Source: xStation5

Oleksandr Stelmakh, a member of the Ukraine Central Election Commission, is exploring the potential application of the blockchain technology in elections. Stelmakh is testing the blockchain voting system created in cooperation with NEM Foundation group. The tests are still on the way therefore we might have to wait some time for the results. Let us recall that in the early days of cryptomania and blockchain hype the use of technology in the elections has been hailed as one of the optimal applications of this technology.

LITECOIN, just like RIPPLE, is trading at year’s low. The latest decline seems to be eased around the $65 handle. As we can see, the coin is clearly trading below 8- and 33-period moving averages on the H4 interval (purple and yellow lines on the chart) therefore the potential bounce may be limited by these technical obstacles. Source: xStation5