The Week Ahead, Trade Opportunities

Trade Opportunities: NASDAQ, EURCAD

Posted on by TrackRecord Trading

NASDAQ Composite Index (IXIC) Weekly Candlesticks & Ichimoku Chart  LONG 
The NASDAQ Composite Index has yet again failed to break below and managed to recover to close above the weekly ichimoku cloud. With the 90-day truce in the Trade War, it is now likely to trade higher into the end of the year.

 

EUR/CAD Daily Candlesticks & Ichimoku Chart  SHORT 
With EUR/CAD twice failing to sustain closes above the daily Ichimoku clouds, the time to re-initiate short positions on this pair could be soon at hand!

 

Vee, our Founder/CIO highlights patterns/formations on selected chart(s) every week which may have the potential to turn into trading opportunities. These charts are first sent out on Monday of the week to members of our weekly subscription product – “CIO’s Week Ahead Update”, which helps to filter out the noise and condense only what’s important in the markets for the week ahead.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this material do not constitute a recommendation by TrackRecord Pte. Ltd. that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of TrackRecord Pte. Ltd

Cryptocurrency, Market Summary

2 min Market Summary: 4 Dec 2018

Posted on by TrackRecord Trading

NOTABLE MOVES 

USDJPY, -0.04%, 113.44
EURUSD, -0.04%, 1.1366
GBPUSD, +0.13%, 1.2781
USDCAD, -1.01%, 1.318
NZDUSD, +0.86%, 0.6922

S&P500, +1.10%, 2790.37
Nasdaq, +1.52%, 7440.92
Nikkei, +1.00%, 22574.76

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP 

  • USD ISM Manufacturing PMI at 59.3 vs expected 57.5. A section of the U.S. Treasuries yield curve just inverted for the first time in more than a decade. The spread between 3- and 5-year yields fell to negative 0.6 basis points Monday, dropping below zero for the first time since 2007. The move is seen to be the first signal that the market is putting the Federal Reserve on notice that the end of its tightening cycle is approaching.
  • Markets in Asia were buoyed by the trade agreement between the US and China at last weekend’s G20 meeting. Currencies and equities gapped higher as investors who feared the worst found the outcome satisfactory. However, aside from the initial move at the open, there was no continuation or additional gains during the North American session for stocks, the U.S. dollar or high beta currencies, as investors were not impressed by the “deal.” CNY Caixin Manufacturing PMI at 50.2 vs expected 50.1.
  • The U.S. national day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush on Wednesday will delay the release of several economic data. ADP said it will delay by one day its snapshot on how many new jobs were created in November. The Institute for Supply Management and IHS Markit will do the same for their surveys of U.S. service-oriented companies. The federal government, for its part, will also push back its latest update on third-quarter productivity. Fed Chair Powell’s congressional testimony to Congress will be rescheduled. This was a highly anticipated meeting because investors are eager to see if Powell clarifies his comments about interest rates last week.
  • Euro ended the day higher versus the US dollar after some headlines suggested that Italy could scale back their deficit plans.
  • On Brexit, early buying dissipated in cable with the pair dropping towards 1.2750 after trading as high as 1.2825. UK PMI Manufacturing reported stronger than expected data at 53.1 vs expected 51.6 but traders ignored the news as Brexit woes continued to dog the pair on reports that as many as one-third of PM May’s party may vote against her deal on December 11.
  • The G20 meeting also provided relief for the oil price, as Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to extend into 2019 their deal to manage the oil market, known as OPEC+, although Moscow and Riyadh have yet to confirm any fresh output cuts. The announcement opens the door for a deal at the OPEC meeting on Thursday, 6 December. The Kiwi and CAD also traded higher with the loonie rising on the back of the 4.4% recovery in oil prices.
  • In other news, an angry President Trump on Monday called for his ex-personal lawyer Michael Cohen to receive a stiff prison sentence for his admitted crimes, as he accused Cohen of making up “stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself.” Trump in a Twitter tirade also accused special counsel Robert Mueller of seeking “lies” from witnesses about Trump — and praised his longtime associate Roger Stone as having the “guts” to withstand pressure from Mueller’s prosecutors to “make up stories” about the president. Trump’s latest rants came three days after lawyers for Cohen asked a judge in a court filing to give him no prison time when he is sentenced Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for charges brought by Mueller and other federal prosecutors.

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

  • Stocks rallied after the U.S. and China declared a truce in their trade war. Stocks in Asia saw healthy gains, notably Chinese equities. The benchmark S&P 500 Index jumped more than 1%, building on gains posted during the biggest weekly increase in almost seven years, after leaders of the two countries agreed to hold off on new tariffs and intensify trade talks. The United States expects China to take immediate action to cut tariffs on U.S. car imports and end intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers as the two countries move toward a broader trade deal, a White House official said on Monday.
  • Amazon briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street in intraday trade on Monday, days after Microsoft dethroned long-time leader Apple, ending the iPhone maker’s five-year run at the top. However, Amazon’s lead lasted only a few seconds. At the close, Apple was back on top with a 3.49 percent increase in its stock that put its total value at $877 billion. It was followed by Amazon, up 4.86 percent with a market capitalization of $866.6 billion, and then Microsoft, up 1.08 percent and a stock market value of $860.4 billion. The tight race between the trio of high-powered technology stocks coincided with a broad stock market rally after the United States and China agreed on a temporary truce in their ongoing trade dispute.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS 

Russian Marketplace Allows Users to Sell Items Priced in Cryptocurrency

A new Russian online marketplace, Mentalmarket, that allows users to buy and sell goods and services priced in cryptocurrency has rapidly expanded in recent months and has been publishing a growing number of ads in a dozen categories, from “cryptoindustry” to “real estate.” The platform supports payments in major coins such as bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), zcash (ZEC), Ripple’s XRP and dash. Prices are also displayed in U.S. dollars for convenience. Mentalmarket publishes ads from residents of the Russian Federation and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Users can log in to the platform if they have a Telegram account. They need to send “start” to @MentalMarket_Bot to request an authorization code, then click “Login via Telegram” on the Mentalmarket website before entering the code. The platform has strict requirements regarding the content of the ads. Unlike darknet marketplaces, Mentalmarket does not facilitate the sale of any items that would be considered illegal in the countries in which it operates. The blacklist includes drugs, alcohol and tobacco products, as well as precious metals and databases with personal or corporate information.

Thai Government Trials Blockchain in Fight Against Tax Fraud

A government agency in Thailand is trialing blockchain tech as a means to track value-added tax (VAT) payments in the country. Allegedly, Thailand’s Revenue Department is considering implementing blockchain to prevent fraudulent VAT refund claims in the country. VAT is a form of consumption tax levied on goods and services. According to Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the Revenue Department, blockchain would help verify VAT invoices and in turn help eliminate any that were not genuine. The agency is also reportedly planning to tap other emerging technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and Big Data to prevent tax evasion and fraud. The project was aimed to create digital invoice on a blockchain platform as proof of purchase for goods and services, again with the purpose of combating fake invoices and “improve the invoice supervision process.”

GM Patent Touts Blockchain As Data Solution for Self-Driving Cars

General Motors (GM) may be eyeing a blockchain platform to manage data from future fleets of automated cars. A patent application published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a process by which self-driving cars would be able to store all their data on a distributed ledger. The document, produced by GM Global Technology Operations LLC, further notes that any data stored could be easily shared among the blockchain’s users. Sharing data between different independent platforms is also proposed in the filing. A blockchain exchange for municipalities, local authorities and public facilities such as airports could, it says, determine the “validity of permits and licenses to operate as hacks, taxis, or other for-hire services.” GM has spent considerable time and effort on such autonomous vehicles, announcing in March that it would begin production of their autonomous vehicles next year.

Cryptocurrency, Market Summary

2 min Market Summary: 3 Dec 2018

Posted on by TrackRecord Trading

NOTABLE MOVES  

USDJPY, -0.01%, $113.47.
EURUSD, -0.67%, $1.1317        .
GBPUSD, -0.33%, $1.2752.
USDCAD, +0.10, $1.3296
NZDUSD, +0.35%, $0.6882.

S&P500, +0.82%, 2,760.17
Nasdaq, +0.79%, 7,330.54
Nikkei, +0.40%, 22,351.06

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP  

  • U.S. Chicago PMI at 66.4 vs expected 58.6. U.S. Treasury yield curve saw some flattening with the 2-yr yield adding one basis point to 2.81%, and the 10-yr yield losing three basis points to 3.01%. Also, the U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.4% to 97.20.
  • E.U. CPI Flash Estimate y/y at 2.0% vs expected 2.1%. Core CPI Flash Estimate y/y at 1.0% vs expected 1.1%. The Euro continues to be undermined by persistent political turmoil in Europe, as Italy can’t come with a budget that satisfies the EU.  
  • On Brexit, Britons kept discussing whether or not to approve the deal and possible alternatives to it, while EU authorities repeat that the deal signed November is the only possible deal. Chances that the UK Parliament will vote May’s plan are low, and to add fuel to the fire, Sam Gyimah, the UK Minister of Science and Universities, resigned in opposition to the agreement.
  • The pace of economic growth in Canada slowed in the third quarter as business investment spending moved lower and the growth in household spending slowed. Canadian GDP m/m at -0.1% vs expected 0.1%.

STOCK MARKET WRAP  

  • The S&P 500 finished strong with a gain of 0.82% on Friday to conclude one of its best weeks of the year. Chip stocks outperformed, evidenced by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rising 1.5%, to help lift the heavily-weighted information technology sector. NVIDIA (NVDA 163.43, +6.07, +3.9%) led chip stocks higher, though Apple (AAPL 178.58, -0.97, -0.5%) was unable to gain traction, eventually losing its status as the S&P 500’s largest company by market cap to Microsoft (MSFT 110.89, +0.70, +0.6%).
  • In other corporate news, General Electric (GE 7.50, -0.44) and Marriott (MAR 115.03, -6.81) lost -5.5% and -5.6%, respectively, amid some negative occurrences. A WSJ report indicated that General Electric ignored insurance risks, according to some former employees. Deutsche Bank also lowered its GE price target to $7. Separately, Marriott announced a data breach involving its guest reservation database for its Starwood-branded hotels. Investors turned their attention to the highly-anticipated G-20 Leaders Summit in Argentina, where Trump and China President Xi are expected to take the main stage at a dinner meeting on Saturday.
  • Over the weekend, China and the US agreed to a ceasefire in their trade war on Saturday after high-stakes talks in Argentina between Trump and President Xi Jinping, including no escalated tariffs on Jan. 1. Trump will leave tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports at 10 percent at the beginning of the new year, agreeing to not raise them to 25 percent “at this time”, the White House said in a statement. “China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries,” it said.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS  

Japan’s Financial Regulator to Introduce New ICO Regulations

Japan’s financial regulator is set to introduce new Initial Coin Offering (ICO) regulations to protect investors from fraud. Business operators conducting ICOs will be required to register with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). The agency is reportedly planning to submit bills revising financial instruments, exchanges and payment services laws to the ordinary parliamentary session that starts in January. This action has been undertaken “in view of a number of possibly fraudulent ICO cases abroad” as a way “to limit individuals’ investment in ICOs for better protecting them.” the FSA Study Group on Virtual Currency Exchange industry conducted its tenth meeting to discuss ICOs. The tokens emitted during ICOs where classified into three categories: virtual currencies without issuer, virtual currencies with issuer and tokens with issuers that are also obliged to distribute revenues.

G20 Country Leaders Call for International Cryptocurrency Taxation

The G20 countries have called for the taxation of cryptocurrency, as well as its regulation to combat money laundering. The final text of a document jointly delivered by G20 leaders calls for “a taxation system for cross-border electronic payment services.” The article then specifies that under current laws, foreign companies that do “not have a factory or other base in Japan” cannot be taxed by the local government. The publication then cites that the G20 leaders seek to “build a taxation system for cross-border electronic services.” A final version of regulations, after considering proposals from each member state, is reportedly expected to be in place by 2020. The CEO of the company behind the cryptocurrency investment app Circle had called for “normalization at the G20 level” of the crypto industry.

Huawei Cloud Announces Global Launch of its Blockchain Services

Huawei Cloud, the cloud services arm of Huawei Global, has announced the launch of its Blockchain Service (BCS). The service allows global entrepreneurs and developers to create, deploy and manage blockchain applications on Huawei Cloud, at a blistering pace and cheaper cost. Per the announcement, the global launch of BCS will also lay the groundwork for a soon to be released distributed global blockchain platform. BCS is a cloud service that leverages on the blockchain and on some of the advantages inherent in the Huawei Cloud container and security technologies. The company claims that the BCS can be applied in most industries, including the Internet of Things (IoT), data applications and finance. BCS will be able to cover a wide array of scenarios, including but not limited to identity verification, food source tracing, remote healthcare, data transactions etc. Several applications of blockchain technology are being investigated and explored by various enterprises across various industries, but Huawei is taking it a step further by deploying the distributed ledger technology on a cloud service. Deployment is a time-consuming process, and it is essential that developers have a proper understanding of the terminologies and concepts under blockchain technology.