Forex Trading: Interest Rates in Focus. WTI & Brent Over $100 on Strait of Hormuz Blockage.

In today’s GCI Market Outlook, let’s take a look at Forex Trading on WTI, Brent Crude Oil, Silver, XAGUSD, Gold, XAUUSD, EURUSD, USDCAD, and USDJPY.

The Bank of Japan just voted to maintain their interest rate.

The press conference was less optimistic based on the Iran war, inflation, and high fuel costs, and analysts feel they may raise rates in June.

This gave some strength to JPY, but keep in mind we are in a large trading range on USDJPY.

Keep an eye on the news, as USD might be on the move with tomorrow’s US Federal Reserve interest rate decision and the following press conference.

Jerome Powell has made it quite clear that inflation will be a concern, but sees the war as a temporary problem.

Let’s see what he says tomorrow, which may be his last press conference.

Also, we see interest rate decisions from Canada, the UK, and Europe.

And, as I always remind traders, watch the following press conferences as, very often, the rhetoric can often move the markets more than the announcements.

Also, we have CPI from Australia tomorrow and GDP from Canada and the US.

We have seen mixed USD direction lately, with weakness in USDCAD, so the economic news from both central banks will be critical to see if the momentum in the downtrend continues.

The elevated price of crude oil is bolstering CAD, and we will look at that in a minute.

Technically, we are seeing a pullback in price action against the trend, so we will be watching technical indicators like the stochastic oscillator for an idea of a reversal.

Also, MACD is still looking bearish, but not strongly.

Also, with economic news from Europe as well, we will be watching EURUSD.

We see a pullback on price action here as well, with a very oversold stochastic oscillator and price action approaching the lower trend line.

In similar price action, both silver and gold are falling in unison, and our technicals are remaining bearish.

The idea that interest rates may be holding or going up this year is driving investors away from gold and into cash.

And, we have to take a look at Crude oil prices with no end in sight to the Iran war and the blockage in the Strait of Hormuz.

The rise in price action is obvious as the WTI/Brent spread is up to $10, which is quite high, and our technicals are bullish.

A spread this large means supply instability with Brent, and the lower price is attracting more exports of WTI.

Therefore, we expect prices to rise further unless we get some good news in peace talks.

That’s all for now.

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