This past week marked another down week for GBP / USD. After failing to break the $1.28 mark earlier in June, sellers have stepped in and pushed the GBP into a downward channel. Some analysts believe this puts the GBP into a poor position amidst the ongoing turmoils, such as the ongoing Brexit discussions and the ever-looming coronavirus. According to the FXStreet Forecast Poll, experts do not expect a meaningful recovery anytime soon, with all of their short-term and long-term targets being bearish or neutral.
EUR / USD appears to be showing a bit more resilience than the GBP / USD, but not by much. Much of the past week of trading was sideways, with the price essentially trapped between 1.1190 and 1.1240. Buyers stepped in at the latter price, but any attempt to the upside has been rejected. With coronavirus cases resurging in both Europe and the US, investors believe this sideways action is a sign of weakness, pointing at bearish movements to come.
Similar to the two currency pairs mentioned above, USD / JPY shows no signs of an uptrend in sight. Starting the week before last, the USD / JPY pair was hammered for five trading sessions in a row, going as low as 106.07 — levels not seen since early May. Price managed to recover back above 107.00 last Thursday, but the case for it to continue up anytime soon is not strong. “Japanese statistics presented little material for economic optimism”, according to FXStreet, pointing to decreased sentiment and output from the manufacturing industries.
In the world of nontraditional assets, BTC / USD appears to be going through a downtrend of its own. After breaking $10,000 in early June, Bitcoin continued to range between $9,100 and $9,800 for much of the month. However, on Friday, June 26th, a record-breaking $1 billion dollars in the Bitcoin options market was set to expire. Whether up or down, this expiration was bound to bring liquidity and volatility. This time, the direction was down, with Bitcoin falling below the $9,000 level for the first time since May.
In conclusion, mounting concerns of the second wave of Covid-19 are pushing investors into safety and pushing the dollar higher against most rivals. In the UK, and across Europe, reports of new cases and deaths from Covid-19 are raising concerns for a second wave of lockdown across the continent, leading investors across Europe to hedge into safer assets. With all eyes on Covid-19 and the world’s financial markets, the only thing predictable in 2020, is unpredictability. This unpredictability is pushing investors into more alternative or exotic assets, such as GOLD or BTC. Studies have shown that younger investors are preferring Digital Assets, over traditional assets, and we expect to continue to see these trends play out over the coming years.
This Week in Finance History:
June 27th, 1967 – The world’s earliest known cash machine, a forerunner of today’s ATMs, begins dispensing paper money at a Barclays bank branch in Enfield Town, England. It’s strictly analog: Users must wait patiently as cue cards, pulled along on rubber bands, scroll across the front of the machine with instructions like, “PLEASE ENTER YOUR CARD.”
June 29th, 2007 – The first Apple iPhone goes on sale. At the time of the iPhone’s release, Apple (Ticker: AAPL) had a market cap right around $100 billion. Recently, Apple’s value has risen as high as $1.1 trillion!
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