
The market remains locked in a multi-day consolidation and should continue to chop between the 9,600-10,100 area. Overall, we do retain a bullish outlook given the broader recovery structure out from a major base in 2011 and therefore recommend looking to buy on dips in favor of an eventual break above 10,100.
By David Schutz, DailyFX.com
- Eurozone industrial production weak in April
- Italian inflation as expected
- Greek headlines continue to suggest political instability, friction with EU
- Euro looks to North American open for possible rally
A rough session for economic data drew to a close today as weak Eurozone data dented confidence in the single currency. April industrial production was weaker than expected on all fronts, despite upward revisions to the previous figures.

The market remains locked in a multi-day consolidation and should continue to chop between the 9,600-10,100 area. Overall, we do retain a bullish outlook given the broader recovery structure out from a major base in 2011 and therefore recommend looking to buy on dips in favor of an eventual break above 10,100.
By Joel Kruger, Technical Strategist for DailyFX.com
- JP Morgan losses seriously diminish credibility in banking sector
- Political saga in Eurozone continues to shake investor confidence
- China trade data disappoints and weighs on broader sentiment
- China economic data disappoints and weighs further on risk correlated assets
- Commodity bloc and emerging market FX exposed
The intense risk-off price action that we saw over the past several sessions looked like it might be poised for reprieve into North America on Thursday, before markets got wind of the disturbing JP Morgan news late in the day. The largest US bank announced a $2B trading loss resulting from some hedges gone bad. While the losses hardly mark a dent in the balance sheet of the banking giant, the news could create a more significant risk off reaction given how JP Morgan has made its stellar reputation throughout the crisis; one of being so far away from reckless trading errors resulting in losses of billions of dollars. Now that JP Morgan has come out with such a loss, it opens the door for similar losses from other major financial institutions and severely diminishes the credibility in the baking sector once again. Many investors are wondering if other banks shouldn’t now mark their trades to market so a clearer picture can be afforded on where things lie.
In our view, the global economy is still standing on shaky ground, and we are not at all surprised to see these developments. We have been arguing for some time that equity markets have been too well bid this year, and we continue to project additional weakness over the coming weeks. The JP Morgan news is certainly a welcome headline for the Eurozone, with the story taking some of the attention away from the political turmoil in Greece and the impact it is having on the broader economy. While the local government is trying to piece together a solution that will keep the existing framework and game plan intact, there is clearly a new regime opposed to the idea of austerity and a regime that will be resistant to the changes that were already in motion pre-election. The prospect of a Greece exit can not be ruled out, and more importantly, investors are concerned of the impact this might have on other countries like Italy and Spain. All in all, the North American continent has been shaken with bad news, Europe is still struggling with its own troubles, and things are now no better in the east.
The latest round of economic data out of China is quite discouraging in our opinion, and continues to highlight the ongoing slowdown that is materializing in this major economy that many had thought was immune to the global crisis. The softer than expected industrial production and retail sales prints only help to reaffirm our view that the Chinese cool down is reflective of the third phase of the global recession. The third phase which has officially kicked into gear should expose some of the highly correlated markets like the commodity bloc economies and emerging markets. As such, we continue to project underperformance in currencies like the Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar and Canadian Dollar going forward, against the lower yielding major currencies. Emerging market FX looks to be even more exposed, and currencies like the South African Rand, Mexican Peso and Turkish Lira could be at risk for major declines into the second half of 2012.

The market remains locked in a multi-day consolidation and should continue to chop between the 9,600-10,100 area. Overall, we do retain a bullish outlook given the broader recovery structure out from a major base in 2011 and therefore recommend looking to buy on dips in favor of an eventual break above 10,100.
By Joel Kruger, Technical Strategist for DailyFX.com
- Short-term technicals starting to look stretched; Euro bounce possible
- Strategy is to sell currencies (expect Yen) against the buck into rallies
- Aussie outperforms on solid employment data
- China trade data disappoints and weighs on broader sentiment
- Greek political saga continues; austerity in jeopardy
- Bank of England policy decision due up later
Although the US Dollar remains very well bid across the board (Yen exception) on risk liquidation themes, technical studies are starting to look a little stretched and could warn for some consolidation before any fresh currency weakness. We have mostly been seeing some corrective consolidation in early Thursday trade thus far, and from here, we prefer an approach of selling currencies into rallies.
The Australian Dollar is the outperformer on the day, with the commodity currency finding some relative strength on the back of a very well received employment report. Nevertheless, we would warn that Aussie bulls should not get too excited by this data showing, as broader risk off macro themes are at play, and should continue to weigh on the Australian Dollar. By extension, the latest China trade data was far from positive, and we believe it should have more of an influence on the correlated Australian Dollar than the Aussie employment data. The China data therefore is offsetting, and as such, Aussie rallies are still only viewed as short-term technical rallies ahead of an eventual bearish resumption below parity.
Elsewhere, the ongoing saga in the Eurozone is still very much in the spotlight, and it now looks as though any efforts for austerity in Greece could be out the window, given the post-elections government shakeup. The latest comment from SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, that the Greek bailout agreement was “null and void”, can not be sitting well with investors. Looking ahead, the key event risk for the day comes in the form of the Bank of England policy decision, although no change to rates or asset purchases are expected.

The market remains locked in a multi-day consolidation and should continue to chop between the 9,600-10,100 area. Overall, we do retain a bullish outlook given the broader recovery structure out from a major base in 2011 and therefore recommend looking to buy on dips in favor of an eventual break above 10,100.
By Joel Kruger, Technical Strategist for DailyFX.com
- Greece political uncertainty fuels fears of contagion
- Euro under pressure but yet to close below 1.3000
- Commodity bloc and emerging market FX most exposed
The ongoing political turmoil in Europe continues to shake the markets, with the inability for Greece to form a government now fueling speculation that the country might soon exit the Eurozone. Although an exit by Greece would have only a minimal impact on the broader economy, given the country’s size, fears of contagion seem to be the bigger problem right now, as investors start to price in the impact this will have on larger economies like Spain and Italy.
Technically, we have said that a close below 1.3000 would be a very bearish development for the Euro, as we have not seen a daily close below 1.3000 since January. With this in mind, Euro bulls can still hold onto some hope at this point, as the market has yet to officially put in a daily close below 1.3000. As such, we continue to recommend proceeding with caution at current levels, and only recommend looking to get more aggressively bearish the Euro on a daily close below 1.3000. A daily close below 1.3000 should then open the door for acceleration back towards the 2012 lows from January at 1.2625.
Despite the fact that all of the problems right now are Euro-centric, the Euro is still not the weakest currency in the current market environment, as the higher yielding risk correlated markets get hit even harder. We have been seeing some underperformance namely on the commodity bloc and emerging market FX, and should investors continue to look to flee to safety, we project that these markets will continue to underperform. As such, look for more weakness from currencies like Aussie, Kiwi and Cad, and from the more exotic markets like the Mexican Peso, South African Rand and Turkish Lira.

The market remains locked in a multi-day consolidation and should continue to chop between the 9,600-10,100 area. Overall, we do retain a bullish outlook given the broader recovery structure out from a major base in 2011 and therefore recommend looking to buy on dips in favor of an eventual break above 10,100.
By Joel Kruger, Technical Strategist for DailyFX.com
- Risk rallies viewed as technical corrections; look to sell
- Euro consolidating above 1.3000 ahead of next drop
- Investors digesting implications of latest French and Greek elections
- Spain back in focus as the country attempts to rescue local bank
Although we have seen a bit of a bounce in risk correlated assets, we contend that the rally is nothing more than some minor consolidation ahead of the next wave of risk liquidation. The Euro managed to close back above 1.3000 on Monday, but from here, we expect any additional rallies to be very well capped ahead of 1.3200 in favor of an eventual retest of the 2012 lows from January at 1.2620. Market participants are still digesting the weekend election results out of France and Greece, and there is a good deal of concern as to whether the newly elected governments will adhere to the austerity measures imposed to ease the debt crisis. In Greece, the situation is highly uncertain, with the lack of a clear majority potentially creating a situation where austerity measures might be significantly reduced in order to appease the opposition. Elsewhere, Spain is back in the headlines, as the country attempts to rescue its third largest bank. Moving on, economic data continues to show signs of weakness, and the softer results once again highlight the fragile state of affairs in which the global economy lies. Overall, we expect risk correlated currencies and global equities to be very well offered on any rallies in favor of more bearish price action.