Last week, the US dollar was stronger versus all major currencies. In both the EUR and the GBP, the dollar hit fresh highs for the year.
On Friday, the EUR/USD hit a fresh low (high USD) of 1.14323. The pair fell below the 50% midpoint of the 2020/2021 trading range at 1.14892 in the process. Furthermore, the week’s high was stuck between 1.1601 and 1.1611. Those levels linked to swing lows in September and November 2020, respectively.
PS. The September low of 1.1523 and the November 5th low of 1.15125 will serve as an intermediate obstacle close to the 50% retracement level, giving buyers more confidence.
WTI crude oil futures are now trading at $80.79. It’s the third week in a row that the closing has been lower. The price is down $0.80, or -0.98%, for the day.
For the day, the highest price was $81.62. The low reached $79.78. The price was $81.17 one week ago.
The peak price for the week was $84.97 on Tuesday. Today’s low price of $79.78 was the lowest of the week.
The Australian dollar was shaken on Thursday by a surprising dip in employment. The economy lost 46.3K jobs, compared to a forecasted rise of 50K. The unemployment rate has risen to 5.2%, up from 4.7% previously.
This stifled excitement for rate hikes in Australia and the economy in general. The selling pressure on the Australian dollar persisted into today’s Asian session, when it plummeted to 0.7277, its lowest level in five weeks.
Gold’s price has reversed its previous losses and is currently trading higher for the day. Yesterday, the closing price was $1862.22. The current price is $1865.34, up $3.41 or 0.19 percent from its previous close.
On November 4, the price returned to above its 100 and 200 hour moving averages. Following a test of the 100 hour moving average on November 5, the price has remained comfortably above it. The current value of that moving average is $1842.23. (and moving higher). Technically, a fall below that level would shift the bias even more to the negative.
After the data, the dollar slid roughly 30 pips against the field, but at various rates on different fronts. A more positive tone from Irish border negotiations on Brexit also helped the pound.
The euro was unable to profit from the weakening dollar, and it traded near the week’s lows before settling near 1.1445. This is the first weekly closure below the crucial 1.1500 barrier.
Both the cable and the AUD/USD currencies recovered from Thursday’s losses to show some progress this week, despite the fact that both have had a rough week. A boost to risk transactions came from improving equities sentiment. Futures had predicted a 0.3% gain, but we ended the day up 0.7% in the S&;P 500 and more in the Nasdaq, proving that there is no such thing as a little fall in this market.
Gold showed some resiliency to cap off a solid week. In Asia, it dipped to $1845 in a retest of the important breakthrough level, but it held before rising to $1864.