FOREX Fundamental analysis for EUR/USD on February, 7th 2023
Forex trading is comparable to the volatility of the weather. You go out in the street on a hot day and suddenly find yourself in pouring rain. It's good, if you have an umbrella. In the market you have to be constantly prepared for various surprises and be able to adjust in time to the circumstances. The January Non-farm Payrolls gave investors back the idea of a continuation of the monetary tightening cycle of the Fed, backed by the steady recovery of the US economy.
At the end of last year, investors stopped believing the Fed, expecting the regulator to either raise rates lower than promised or to start cutting them soon. For some reason, the markets did not accept either the FOMC forecasts or Jerome Powell's assurances. In the end, the Fed governor had to admit that "everyone is entitled to their own opinion". But last Friday's labour market report quickly put everything in its place. On the futures market, a 25 basis point Fed rate hike in March is out of the question and the probability of a cut in May is rising day by day. If the Fed hikes three times this year at 25 basis points each, that would be 5.25%. Not a bad arithmetic for the dollar.
And then Rafael Bostic added more oil to the fire, saying that the rapidly growing economy will force the central bank to do more work and raise rates higher than previously assumed. The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta assumes that the rate will rise by 50 basis points at once during one of the meetings.
The higher the rate hike and the longer it stays at maximum levels, the better for dollar buyers or EUR/USD sellers
While the super-powerful Non-farm Payrolls has brought in losses for optimistic traders, I believe the markets have overreacted emotionally to the statistics. Most likely, the currencies will soon calm down and EUR/USD will move into a consolidation bounded by the 1.060-1.085 levels. A rebound from 1.069 or the 1.058-1.0605 support area will be used for a new buy entry.
In Tuesday's Asian session the EUR/USD, after last Friday's strong bearish momentum on the release of the US labor market report, is consolidating near the low of January 12. The pair lost about 200 pips in two trading sessions.
The United States economy gained 517,000 jobs in January against a forecast of 185,000. The unemployment rate declined from 3.5% to 3.4%. Also in January economic activity in the service sector grew at a high rate. The PMI for the month improved from 49.2 to 55.2 points.
European statistics mostly disappointed investors. German output fell by 10.1% in January and Eurozone retail sales by 2.7%. Consumer activity in the Euro bloc lost 2.8% in annual terms.
The single currency is also under pressure from rising tensions between the US and China. On Friday, Joe Biden postponed indefinitely Secretary of State Blinken's visit to Beijing after a Chinese balloonist was destroyed over United States territory.
Fundamental background, technical indicators, candlestick patterns and chart patterns suggest a downward movement. In this regard, we suggest placing a sell order on EUR/USD.
Sell-limit 1.0750 take-profit 1.0550 stop-loss 1.0810.