InvestMacro Forex News

Since the bullish bounce off the 200-Day Moving Average in early February, NZD/JPY has rocketed in search for a higher swing high for the current uptrend. This week’s high at 89.89, just shy of the 90.00 handle, has the potential to be the current swing high the pair was looking for.

Within the main bullish channel formed between August 2013 and the present day, the impulsive waves move inside their own channels at a much steeper angle. The latest 850 pip bullish move was no exception, with the impulsive wave reaching the main channel’s resistance on April 1^st. Furthermore, on the Daily chart the pair formed a small Pin bar that day, a bearish reversal price action pattern.

NZD/JPY has now reached the first minor support levels; consequently this is the area where price will decide if the uptrend will continue or if a deeper correction is in play. The 50 Simple Moving Average is trailing just beneath the market price. Immediately below it, the previous two highs at 88.30 could become a pivot zone, adding strength for the bullish red trendline. While the pair holds above this level another run towards 90.00 is possible.

A break below 88.30 points towards a deeper correction towards 86.64; where a confluence between the 200 Simple Moving average on the 4H chart and the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement form a strong support area. Even lower, NZD/JPY would end up aiming for the main channel support which will soon coincide with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at 84.64.

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Prepared by Alexandru Z., Chief Currency Strategist at Capital Trust Markets

By Chris Vermeulen – Founder of AlgoTrades Systems

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Chris Vermeulen
Founder of AlgoTrades Systems

After soaring more than 56% last year, the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index is down almost 15% in March. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Jason Kolbert of the Maxim Group points to increased approval rates and a better economic and regulatory environment as the fundamentals behind a revaluation that has occurred in the sector. Kolbert also reflects on recent concerns about pricing and policy changes that have triggered what he considers a normal, healthy correction in an otherwise robust and intact sector.

The Life Sciences Report: In a recent Equity Research Industry Report, you said, “We believe a revaluation of the sector is underway.” What is causing this revaluation and what does it mean for investors?

Jason Kolbert: The value driver in the biotech sector is better products with higher efficacy and fewer side effects, which in turn drives a higher rate of regulatory approvals. Historically, the biotechnology industry and the stocks in the space have had the essence of gambling揺igh risk and high reward. A company’s success and performance largely hinge on its ability to develop a pipeline of drugs and to achieve regulatory approval [i.e., survive the regulatory environment擁n this case the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]]. The fact that the number of FDA approvals for the past three years has been trending positively is a great sign for the biotechnology space. Forbes reported that the FDA has quickened its pace of new drug approvals, approving an average of 32 new drugs annually over the past three years, significantly higher than the historical annual average of 24 from 2000 to 2010. We believe these higher numbers may continue over the next few years.

TLSR: Was the upward trend based solely on the number of drugs being approved?

JK: Industry success hinges on much more than just quantity. The quality of drugs being approved makes a huge difference.

TLSR: What are some examples of drugs that could be an improvement over the current standard of care?

JK: Industry experts and the management teams of the companies we follow tell us that recently approved drugs like Gilead Sciences Inc.’s (GILD) Sovaldi and Medivation Inc.’s (MDVN) Xtandi, as well as those still in the pipeline, have the potential to offer significant improvements over existing alternatives, and bolster both industry sales and investor confidence. In the cell therapy space, we believe that Mesoblast Ltd.’s (MEOBF) [MSB:ASE; MBLTY:OTCPK] Revascor has the potential to completely change existing treatment paradigms.

TLSR: Why does it seem that more of the drugs in the pipeline today are targeting rare diseases?

JK: This is an important shift in the drug development field. These drugs are granted special status by the FDA. The result is limited competition, enhanced intellectual property life and an increase on the return on investment. Furthermore, these drugs are able to access a more favorable regulatory pathway designed for therapies that represent a significant advance over standard of care, or an overall benefit to society. The result is an accelerated development-and-approval timeline to market. With a growing portion of drugs fitting into this category, we expect to see further outperformance in the sector.

TLSR: Why have we seen more merger-and-acquisition [M&A] activity recently?

JK: The recent $25 billion acquisition of Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) by major specialty pharmaceutical company Actavis Inc. (ACT) may be partly responsible for the increase in valuations for related companies, such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA). A growing proportion of these large-cap pharmaceutical and biotech companies are engaging in M&A activities as they seek out size and achieve efficiency of scale. The large caps are often focused on smaller companies in the rare disease drug arenas for the reasons we’ve already mentioned, to help compensate for projected revenue losses resulting from the recent expirations of key patents.

TLSR: The biotech initial public offering [IPO] market has been active in the last year after some lean years for new public company launches. What is behind that change?

JK: We saw 37 life science companies go public in 2013, and 24 IPOs have already been underwritten this year. We see several underlying drivers. First, M&A activity has reduced the number of publicly traded small and or independent biotechnology companies. This limited supply has led to a high demand for small- and mid-cap names and, in turn, driven an oversubscription of many of the recent offers. This only encourages an already robust IPO market.

We also note that generalist fund managers and even individual investors have been increasing their exposure to the biotechnology industry, driven by an increased risk appetite and eagerness to chase high-return profiles. The rise of stocks like Pharmasset Inc. [acquired by Gilead] helped drive this trend. The success of Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ICPT) is another example of the risks and rewards that the sector offers to investors [which make it unique in the field]. The significant outperformance of the sector and the IPOs over the past year have caused generalists who otherwise normally shun the volatility of the space to get involved, generating an even greater demand for new biotechnology IPOs.

Last but not the least, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups [JOBS] Act allows companies to prepare IPOs and test the waters to determine interest. This is one of many factors that have effectively reduced risk for companies looking to go public. The act has been a catalyst for a large number of the offerings this year熔fferings that have been accumulating in the pipeline over the last few years as companies had difficulties accessing capital markets. As such, an economic recovery, a favorable regulatory environment and the JOBS Act have fostered a robust IPO marketplace in the sector.

TLSR: Has all of this good news come to an end? What has happened over the last week or so to cause the sharp pullback we saw in the space?

JK: I think we are seeing a normal, healthy correction. Markets and sectors don’t go straight up. Biotech markets got a shock when letters from congressmen questioned the price of Gilead’s Sovaldi as an expensive new drug for hepatitis C. What these letters fail to take into consideration is the overall efficacy and pharmacoeconomic value of new therapies like Sovaldi, which work better and have fewer side effects than predecessors.

TLSR: When can we expect a return to upward valuations based on the fundamentals you have outlined?

JK: Predicting biotechnology cycles has been close to impossible. The sector performed well in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and poorly in the late 2000s, and it has come back strong these past three years. The performance of the space seems correlated to both the overall economic conditions and macroeconomic policies. When there is more liquidity, and thus more easy money in the market, people tend to be increasingly willing to bet on the biotech industry, hoping that at least one of the companies they invest in will receive FDA approval for a drug that will become a blockbuster, in turn driving outperformance and revaluation of the originator company.

Despite the increase in success stories these last few years, just a small fraction of companies were developing new drugs. While a large portion of recent outperformance has come from successful drug innovation and higher FDA approval rates, it also resulted from favorable monetary policy. As monetary policies may shift, this could dampen enthusiasm for biotechnology companies.

This ties into a concern about whether the sector has the ability to retain investor interest and confidence. Further events that could trigger weakness across the sector include price controls for what some people deem expensive therapies [such as Gilead’s Sovaldi], the pace of innovation and the outcomes of clinical trials, such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s (VRTX) combination trials in cystic fibrosis. Clinical failures, slowing industry growth and increased regulatory risk remain factors to watch as new targeted therapies with high efficacy rates and fewer side effects also progress to the marketplace.

TLSR: Thank you for your time and comments.

This interview was conducted by the editors of Streetwise Reports and can be read in its entirety here.

Jason Kolbert has worked extensively in the healthcare sector as product manager for a leading pharmaceutical company, as a fund manager and as an equity analyst. Prior to joining Maxim Group, where he is head of healthcare research, senior managing director and biotechnology analyst, Kolbert spent seven years at Susquehanna International Group, where he managed a healthcare fund and founded SIG’s biotechnology team. Previously, Kolbert served as the healthcare strategist for Salomon Smith Barney. He is often quoted in the media and is a sought-out expert in the biotechnology field. Prior to beginning his Wall Street career, Kolbert served as a product manager for Schering-Plough in Osaka, Japan. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from State University of New York, New Paltz, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of New Haven.

DISCLOSURE:

1) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services.

2) Jason Kolbert: I own, or my family owns, shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. I personally am, or my family is, paid by the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. I was not paid by Streetwise Reports for participating in this interview. Comments and opinions expressed are my own comments and opinions. I had the opportunity to review the interview for accuracy as of the date of the interview and am responsible for the content of the interview.

3) Interviews are edited for clarity. Streetwise Reports does not make editorial comments or change experts’ statements without their consent.

4) The interview does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise during the up-to-four-week interval from the time of the interview until after it publishes.

Following the ECB Press Conference and their decision to leave the interest rate unchanged at the history low level of 0.25%, EUR/JPY turned bearish after reaching 143.41 and failing to take out yesterday’s high.

Technical Analysis

The long term bullish trend is intact. Until yesterday it seemed EUR/JPY would continue higher within the current bullish channel, towards 145.50. Intraday action was concentrated around the resistance trendline, yet the daily bar failed to close above it. This scenario was played all over today with the same result.

As the pair failed for the third time to create a higher high, the triangle formation looks more genuine and EUR/JPY may be forced to retreat lower yet again. The pair is quickly approaching the tip of the triangle; the range will get smaller each day, so a major breakout is due very soon.

143.46 is the main resistance. 143.77, the high from March, is a close secondary resistance.

The support of the triangle formation is extremely well defined by the 50 and the 100-Day Moving Averages in the 140.60 region, followed by the 139.95-140.00 large round number support.

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Prepared by Alexandru Z., Chief Currency Strategist at Capital Trust Markets

By Dennis Miller

You may have heard the old adage: “What is worse than being lost? Not knowing you are lost.” In that same vein: What is worse than being at risk? You guessed it! Not knowing you’re at risk.

For many investors, portfolio diversification is just that. They think they are protected, only to find out later just how at risk they were.

Diversification is the holy grail of portfolio safety. Many investors think they are diversified in every which way. They believe they are as protected as is reasonably possible. You may even count yourself among that group. If, however, you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, or if you are just getting started, I urge you to read on.

• Did your portfolio take a huge hit in the 2008 downturn?
• Was your portfolio streaking to new highs until the metals prices came down a couple years ago?
• Do oil price fluctuations have a major impact on your portfolio?
• When interest rates tanked in the fall of 2008, did a major portion of your bonds and CDs get called in?
• Are you nervous before each meeting of the Federal Reserve, wondering how much your portfolio will fluctuate depending on what they say?
• Has your portfolio grown but your buying power been reduced by inflation?
• Do you still have a tax loss carry forward from a stock you sold more than three years ago?

There are certain lessons most of us learn the hard way—through trial and error. But that can be very expensive. Ask anyone who has a loss carry forward and they will tell you that the government is your business partner when you are winning. When you are losing, you are on your own.

The old saying rings true here: “When the student is ready to learn, the teacher shall appear.” Sad to say, for many investors that happens after they have taken a huge hit and are trying to figure out how to prevent another one.

Alas, there is an easier way. Anyone who has tried to build and manage a nest egg will agree it is a long and tedious learning experience. The key is to get educated without losing too much money in the meantime.

Avoid Catastrophic Losses

The goal of diversification is to avoid catastrophic losses. In the past, we’ve mentioned correlation and shared an index related to our portfolio addition. The scale ranges from +1 to -1. If two things move in lockstep, their correlation rates a +1. If the price of oil goes up, as a general rule the price of oil stocks will also rise.

If the two things move in the opposite direction (a correlation of -1), we can also predict the results. If interest rates rise, long-term bond prices will fall and generally so will the stocks of homebuilders.

At the same time, a correlation of zero means there is no determinable relationship. If the price of high-grade uranium goes up, more than likely it will not affect the market price of Coca-Cola stock. So, your goal should be to minimize the net correlation of your portfolio so no single event can negatively impact it catastrophically.

General Market Trends

An investor with mutual funds invested in Large Cap, Mid Cap, and Small Cap stocks may think he is well diversified with investments in over 1,000 different companies. Ask anyone who owned a stable of stock mutual funds when the market tumbled in 2008 and they will tell you they learned a lesson.

Mr. Market is not known to be totally rational and many have lost money due to “guilt by association.” When the overall stock or bond market starts to fall, even the best-managed businesses are not immune to some fallout. While the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions of dollars into the system, there is no guarantee the market will rebound as quickly as it has in the last five years. The market tanked during the Great Depression and it took 25 years to return to its previous high.

If you listen to champions of the Austrian business cycle theory, they will tell you the longer the artificial boom, the longer and more painful the eventual bust. Mr. Market can dish out some cruel punishment.

Diversification is indeed the holy grail, but there are some risks which diversification cannot mitigate entirely. No matter how hard you try to fortify your bunker, sooner or later we will learn of a bunker buster. There are times when minimizing the damage and avoiding the catastrophic loss is all anyone can do.

Sectors

Allocating too much of your portfolio to one sector can be dangerous. This is particularly true if a single event can happen that could give you little time to react. While no one predicted the events of September 11, people who held a lot of airline stocks took some tough losses. Guilt by association also applied here. After September 11, the stocks of the best-managed airlines, hotels, and theme parks took a downturn.

When the tech bubble and real estate bubble burst, the stock prices of the best-run companies dropped along with the rest of the sector, leaving investors to hope their prices would rebound quickly.

Geography

One of the major factors to consider when investing in mining and oil stocks is where they are located. It is impossible to move a gold mine or an oil well that has been drilled. Many governments are now imposing draconian taxes on these companies, which negatively impacts shareholders. In some cases, this can be a correlation of -1. If an aggressive government is affecting a particular oil company, other companies in different locations may have to pick up the slack and their stock may rise in anticipation of increased sales.

Many governments around the world have become very aggressive with environmental regulation, costing the industry billions of dollars to comply. If you want to invest in companies that burn or sell anything to do with fossil fuels, you would do well to understand the political climate where their production takes place.

Investors who prefer municipal bonds must make their own geographical rating on top of the ratings provided for the various services. States like Michigan and Illinois are headed for some rough times. I wouldn’t be lending any of them my money in the current environment no matter what the interest rate might be.

Currency Issues

Inflation is public enemy number one for seniors and savers. One of the advantages of currencies is they always trade in pairs. If one currency goes up, another goes down. If the majority of your portfolio is in one currency, you are well served to have investments in metals and other vehicles good for mitigating inflation.

Tim Price sums it up this way in an article posted on Sovereign Man:

“Why do we continue to keep the faith with gold (and silver)? We can encapsulate the argument in one statistic.

“Last year, the US Federal Reserve enjoyed its 100th anniversary. … By 2007, the Fed’s balance sheet had grown to $800 billion. Under its current QE program (which may or may not get tapered according to the Fed’s current intentions), the Fed is printing $1 trillion a year. To put it another way, the Fed is printing roughly 100 years’ worth of money every 12 months. (Now that’s inflation.)”

It is difficult to determine when the rest of the world will lose faith in the US dollar. Once one major country starts aggressively unloading our dollars, the direction and speed of the tide could turn quickly.

Interest-Rate Risk

The Federal Reserve plays a major role in determining interest rates. Basically they have instituted their version of price controls and artificially held interest rates down for over five years. Interest-rate movement affects many markets: housing, capital goods, and some aspects of the bond markets. While it also makes it easier for businesses to borrow money, they are not likely to make major capital expenditures when they are uncertain about the direction of the economy.

While holders of long-term, high-interest bonds had an unexpected gain when the government dropped rates, their run will eventually come to an end as rates rise. Duration is an excellent tool for evaluating changes in interest rates and their effect on bond resale prices and bond funds. (See our free special report Bond Basics, for more on duration.)

While interest rates have been rising, when you factor in duration there is significant risk, even with the higher interest offered for 10- to 30-year maturities. Again, having a diversified portfolio with much shorter-term bonds helps to mitigate some of the risk.

Risk Categories of Individual Investments

While investors have been looking for better yield, there has been a major shift toward lower-rated (junk) bonds. Many pundits have pointed out that their default rate is “not that bad.”

At the same time, the lure of highly speculative investments in mining, metals, and start-up companies with good write-ups can be very appealing. There is merit to having small positions in both lower-rated bonds and speculative stocks because they offer terrific potential for nice gains.

So What Can Income Investors Do?

There are a number of solid investments out there that offer good return, with a minimal amount of risk exposure and that won’t move because of an arbitrary statement by the Fed. It’s not always easy to find them, but there is hope for people wondering what to do now that all of the old adages about retirement investing are no longer true.

There are three important facets of a strong portfolio: income, opportunities and safety measures. Miller’s Money Forever helps guide you through the better points of finance, and helps replace that income lost in our zero-interest-rate world—with minimal risk.

This is where the value of one of the best analyst teams in the world comes into focus. We focus on our subscribers’ income-investing needs, and I challenge our analysts to find safe, decent-yielding, fixed-income products that will not trade in tandem with the steroid-induced stock market—or alternatively, ones that will come back to life quickly if they do get knocked down with the market. They recently showed me seven different types of investments that met my criteria and still withstood our Five-Point Balancing Test.

My peers are of having holes blown in their retirement plans. While nuclear-bomb-shelter safe may be impossible, we still want a bulletproof plan.

This is what we’ve done at Money Forever: built a bulletproof, income-generating portfolio that will stand up to almost anything the market can throw at it.

It is time to evolve and learn about the vast market of income investments safe enough for even the most risk-wary retirees. Some investors may want to shoot for the moon, but we spent the bulk of our adult lives building our nest eggs; it’s time to let them work for us and enjoy retirement stress-free. Learn how to get in, now.

By HY Markets Forex Blog

Futures for gold were seen climbing higher for a second day in a row on Thursday, before the release of the US non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

The anticipating US non-farm payrolls report could enlighten the current state of the world’s largest economy and may hint the next step the Federal Reserve (Fed) may take on its monthly asset purchases.

Gold prices held a rise from its seven-week low, edging 0.21% higher at $1,293.70 an ounce at the time of writing, climbing from February’s low of $1,277.58 seen in the previous week.

Holdings in the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust; came in at 810.98 tons on Wednesday, the lowest since the first week of March.

“The last two days have seen outflows from gold ETFs total 8.8 tons. Clearly, investments are being shifted from gold into equities. The S&P 500, for example, closed at a record high yesterday, while other equity markets are likewise not far from reaching record highs or finding themselves on a pronounced upward trajectory,” Commerzbank quoted on Wednesday.

Gold – US Jobs Report

The ADP employment report released on Wednesday, showed that 191,000 new jobs were added to the US private sector in the month of March, compared to the revised 178,000 seen in February.

The anticipating jobs report may hint the Federal Reserve‘s next move on its monetary policy, as the US Federal Reserve trimmed asset purchases at the last three policy meetings.  The jobs data tomorrow is expected to show a positive growth in the jobs sector, with analysts expecting to see 200,000 new jobs added to the US economy in March.

On Wednesday, the President of the Fed Bank of St. Louis James Bullard said that reducing the benchmark interest rate further could halt trimming bond purchases, which is not likely to happen, according to Bullard.

Visit www.hymarkets.com   to find out more about our products and start trading today with only $50 using the latest trading technology today

The post Gold Prices Climbs from Seven-Week Low appeared first on | HY Markets Official blog.

Article provided by HY Markets Forex Blog

Guest Post by Alex Eliades of www.xglobalmarkets.com

Most traders have a tough time selecting a good broker and with good reason too. Not only do they have to watch out for the good, the bad and the unregulated brokers but they also need to understand the terms and conditions of the different account types on offer and also understand why some accounts with the same broker have huge minimum deposit restrictions, charge commissions and have sub-pip spreads while others don’t.

At first visitors might get the impression that they have to deposit many thousands of dollars to get a professional trading account that has the tools and conditions that they need to profit from trading. In most cases (not all) that would be a misconception and it is more likely a marketing ploy that is associated with offering different accounts. The goal would be for brokers to acquire clients with certain deposit thresholds. The reality is that some brokers offer trading accounts with barely any deposit requirements that have similar conditions to those with brokers that have huge deposit requirements.

In order to understand the different types of account offerings we must first focus in on the variables that trading accounts typically feature.

One variable is the spreads and commission charges; it is common for brokers to make money from a mark-up in the spread or from commission fees per traded lot and sometimes a combination of the two. Generally the typical retail account has wider spreads but the trader is not charged commission fees. These accounts usually have very low deposit requirements and are accessible to most traders. Accounts that are targeted at high depositing traders are usually offered with tight spreads and commission fees per traded lot, which may better suit larger trades.

Another variable would be the type of trade execution featured in an account. The typical retail trading account is often connected to a dealing room and the broker practices market making. In this scenario trades over a certain threshold are executed manually and require dealer approval. If the dealer can make the trade profitable either by covering it at a better rate with a liquidity provider or by taking the other side of the trade the client will have their order approved, otherwise the dealer will issue a re-quote or process the trade with negative slippage. This can take several seconds although in the cases of smaller trades a virtual dealer is often used, which speeds up the execution. A more professional type of execution model is known as STP or straight through processing, which is also inherent in an ECN account.  Instead of a dealing room being involved, orders are executed directly with a liquidity provider without any intervention. This provides the trader with direct market access, orders will be placed within milliseconds and re-quotes will never be issued. The only drawback is that the spreads will always be variable and orders can receive pricing slippage, both of which are traits of trading directly on the market.

Another variable that we will cover here is whether or not the spreads are fixed or variable. Quite often traders prefer fixed spreads if they are using expert advisors or some form of automated trading. The thing is fixed spreads can never be offered when a trader has direct market access as the spread is made up from the lowest bid/ask prices from multiple liquidity providers. Therefore, fixed spreads will only usually be available when a dealing room is involved. In all other cases such as ECN/STP accounts the prices should always be variable.

The final thing worth mentioning is that sometimes accounts can be classified by the type of trading platform on offer. For example Sirix or MetaTrader 4 is a common platform that is offered by the majority of retail Forex brokers. Currenex or SaxoTrader on the other hand is a more professional trading platform that is used more for institutional clients or for brokerages to trade themselves. Therefore, some brokers offer a Currenex account which they demand a high deposit to access.

We have covered some of the more important features that different account types might feature but note that there are other important things to consider such as leverage offered, liquidation level, lowest required margin trading instruments, whether hedging or scalping is allowed, the use of EAs, swap-free/Islamic as well as additional services like Trading Central or Autochartist.

Now we have gone over some of the variables that are usually thrown in you need to understand that even though a broker requires a $10k deposit for an ECN account it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t find another broker that offers an ECN account with similar conditions but just requiring a minimum $200 deposit. However, some brokers might require high deposit requirements in order to provide institutional trading conditions that are not so profitable for the broker with smaller and less frequent trades. In this case the broker needs to ensure that they are able to cover their operating costs so they add a minimum deposit level. Be aware though that a true ECN broker will not benefit from large deposits, only a high volume of trades but there is some correlation with deposit level and trade volume. It’s also important to mention that clients with large deposits are likely to get VIP treatment by brokers vs regular clients.

Despite some brokers requiring relatively large deposits for very competitive conditions, we have seen brokers out there that offer the same type of institutional grade trading conditions with low minimum deposits so the bottom line is if you a looking for professional trading conditions you don’t always need a huge deposit but it might help you secure excellent customer service and a professional trading platform.

XGLOBAL Markets offers a single trading account with spreads starting at 0.8 pips with no commission in a swap free environment. All trades are executed on the companies ECN providing direct market access through an MT4 bridge. They do not have a minimum deposit requirement, so traders can get started with the minimum amount it would take to place the smallest trade.

About the Author

This article was a guest post by Alex Eliades of xglobalmarkets.com

Reports from the US disappointed today. The US Trade Balance posted a larger than expected deficit of -42.3B, up from -39.3B in January. Unemployment Claims, at 326K, also exceeded the expected figure of 319K. Meanwhile Canada’s merchandise exports grew, resulting in a trade surplus of $290 million in February.

Technical Analysis

USD/CAD has formed a triangle formation this week, with tight boundaries compared to the recent swings. Even so, the pair has managed to respect the boundaries on each touch, with the support trendline being tested on four separate occasions.

The pair lacked any major reactions early in the US session, as traders are waiting in anticipation of tomorrow’s US NFP report and Canadian Unemployment Rate.

The main support is the round handle 1.1000, also coinciding with 38.2% Fibonacci retracement on the December-March uptrend. The current trend configuration remains bearish, since price broke below the last swing low from March and stabilized below the 200 Simple Moving Average on 4H timeframe.

A break below 1.1000 will lead to a sell-off towards 0.9093-0.9118, where February’s low and the 50% Fibonacci retracement form a decent support confluence.

Bullish breaks of the triangle are unlikely at this point, but it this will happen the 50-Day Moving Average and 200 SMA on 4H, sitting between 1.1080 and 1.1090, should be noted as potential reversal points.

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Prepared by Alexandru Z., Chief Currency Strategist at Capital Trust Markets

By CentralBankNews.info
    The European Central Bank (ECB), which earlier today left its benchmark refinancing rate at a record low of 0.25 percent,  is ready to use “unconventional instruments” and further rate cuts to tackle the risk of inflation remaining too low for a long period of time.
    “We are resolute in our determination to maintain a high degree of monetary accommodation and to act swiftly if required,” ECB President Mario Draghi told a press conference, sharpening the central bank’s forward guidance about its intended monetary policy.
    “Hence, we do not exclude further monetary policy easing and we firmly reiterate that we continue to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time,” Draghi said, adding:
    “The Governing Council is unanimous in its commitment to using also unconventional instruments within its mandate in order to cope effectively with risks of a too prolonged period of low inflation.”
    In his prepared statement, Draghi did not provide any details of the type of monetary tools that the ECB is considering using to further boost inflation, which has remained below 2 percent for 14 months.
    In March inflation in the 18-nation euro zone fell to 0.5 percent from 0.7 percent in February. The ECB targets inflation of close to but below 2 percent.
   
  

By HY Markets Forex Blog

The 18-block euro traded flat against the US dollar on Thursday, after the release of a set of services PMI data from the eurozone. Traders are focusing on the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting which would be followed by a press conference from the bank’s President Mario Draghi later in the day. The market will be paying attention to Draghi’s comments which could set a different direction for the currency pair.

The euro weakened against the greenback, dropping 0.02% lower to $1.3764 at the time of writing.

Euro – Services PMI

A set of services PMI data were released from the eurozone, with the services PMI in Germany dropping to 53 points in March, compared to the previous reading of 55.9 points seen in February.

In France, the country’s services sector climbed towards an expansion rate in March, with the PMI reading rising to 51.5, compared to 47.2 recorded in the previous month.

Italy’s services sector declined in March, with the PMI dropping to 49.5 from 52.9 recorded in February and compared to estimates of 52.3.

The services sector in Spain advanced higher than expected in March, with the services PMI rising to 54 points, surpassing the previous reading of 53.7 points.

The final PMI for the eurozone’s services sector slipped to 52.2 points lower in March, compared to February’s reading of 52.6 points.

ECB Meeting

European Central Bank‘s (ECB) meeting has been the main focus for the market, as the bank is expected to announce its monthly interest-rate decision later in the day. The bank’s officials are expected to maintain its benchmark rate and leave it unchanged at a record low of 0.25%.

“Draghi’s post-rate decision press conference will be closely watched. Recent rhetoric from ECB officials has been generally dovish, and Draghi will likely present a similarly dovish stance,” Lloyds Bank quoted on Thursday.

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