Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, traded above $100,000 for the first time ever today.
- The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has finally made a bullish breakout beyond $100,000 after spending a couple of weeks consolidating below this significant level, which is likely to be a pivotal point for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Trend and momentum traders will be interested in being long of Bitcoin, especially if the price holds up above $100,000 over the rest of today’s market session. Bitcoin has risen by over 30% since the election victories of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans in the US general election held last month. Traders interested in being long of Bitcoin should note that spot Bitcoin and Bitcoin futures (including CME micro futures available at one-tenth of a Bitcoin) more accurate reflect price rises than Bitcoin ETFs, which can lag severely.
- Although global stock markets are mixed, with several markets such as China recently reaching multi-month lows, some stock markets are booming, trading at new record highs. The leader is the USA, where the S&P 500 and the technology-based NASDAQ 100 Index again reached all-time highs, and have continued to rise in recent off-market hours. In Germany, the DAX is also rising powerfully, and briefly traded above 20,000 for the first time ever. Trend traders will be interested in being long of these assets, especially the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P 500 Index.
- US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has stated that due to the ongoing strength of the US economy, which is the envy of the world, the Fed can afford to be cautious about rate cuts. However, the CME FedWatch tool shows there is still a 74% chance of a 0.25% rate cut at the upcoming December policy meeting.
- In the Forex market, since today’s Tokyo open, the New Zealand Dollar has been the biggest gainer and the Swiss Franc the biggest loser. The EUR/USD currency pair remains in a valid long-term bearish trend.
- The shaky French government lost a vote of no confidence in the French Parliament yesterday, so it must resign. There cannot be a new election by law, and it is hard to see how any grouping can command a majority in Parliament, which begins to resemble the Parliament of late Weimar-era Germany.
- In Japan, markets are pricing in only a 36% chance of a rate hike at the Bank of Japan’s December meeting following comments from a Bank of Japan official. This may create some weakness in the Yen.
- Yesterday’s release of the US ADP Non-Farm Employment Change Forecast was as expected, while the released US ISM Services PMI data was worse than expected.
- Today will see the release of US Unemployment Claims data.
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