The terrible week continues
Oil prices have been decimated this week as turmoil in the banking sector has increased the risk of a significant economic downturn or recession this year. Traders are clearly not convinced that the worst is behind us, which continues to weigh on the price of crude oil, especially as we head into a weekend where anything can happen, as we saw a week ago. Should there be calm, oil prices may return and a peaceful weekend may be the first step towards that.
Safe haven push lifts gold
Gold pushes back up in risk-on trade at the end of the week. It’s hardly surprising that we’re seeing this going into the weekend, as we learned last week how much can happen in the two days when the markets aren’t open. With interest rates falling and gold trading near levels last seen in early February, it’s clear that traders are taking a defensive stance. Whether it continues in early trading next week will be determined by how eventful the weekend will be. Key resistance levels remain at $1,960 – around the February highs – and $2,000, a breach of which would be a major psychological move and signal how much fear remains in the markets.
Bitcoin Rally Unsustainable?
There are various theories floating around about crypto’s strong performance over the past week, and frankly, most of them are more wishful thinking than logic. But that’s irrelevant at this point, as all that matters is that it’s up another 7% by the end of the week, more than 30% since last Friday, and some major technical levels have been obliterated in that time. The next is $28,000, followed by $32,500 above that. It seems pointless to try to predict where the rally will peak as previous moves often didn’t make much sense either, but still continued, although this time seems particularly unsustainable. It should be interesting, anyway.
This article is for general information only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors’; not necessarily OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for everyone. You may lose all your deposited funds.
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds full membership in the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognized as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.
