On Friday, US stocks ended the day lower after the huge miss on the jobs’ numbers. According to the Labor Department, the economy added just 20K jobs in February, which was lower than the consensus estimates of more than 180K. The numbers led to a sharp decline in stocks, marking the fifth day of consecutive declines as investors continued to worry about global growth. Today, futures point to a lower open with the Dow shedding 90 points. Also today, with no major economic data from the US, investors will focus on Boeing, which is a member of the Dow index. This is after a major accident with its new Boeing 737-Max, in Ethiopia, killing more than 150 people.
The price of gold rose slightly today as deal-making in the sector increased. Over the weekend, it was announced that Newcrest Mining was preparing to pay more than $800 million for New Chris Mining, which is owned by Imperial Metals Corporation. While this is a small deal, it shows the levels at which miners are going to achieve growth as gold becomes rare and costs to mine increase. This year, Newmont Mining announced that it will acquire Goldcorp for more than $8 billion. Shortly afterwards, Barrick Gold announced a hostile takeover of Newmont, which would create the biggest gold mining company in the world. This follows the merger of Sibanye and Stillwater in 2016 and last year’s acquisition of Randgold by Barrick Resources.
Traders will receive more trade-related data today. In the morning hours, they will receive the export and import data from Germany. The exports are expected to decline by 0.5%, which will be lower than the growth of 1.5% a month ago. Imports are expected to increase by 0.2%, which is slightly lower than the previous 1.2%. The trade surplus is expected to increase to €21.2 billion, which will be higher than the previous €19.4 billion. These numbers will come a week after the US trade deficit jumped to a 10-year high.
EUR/USD
The EUR/USD pair was relatively unmoved in early trading as traders waited for key data from Europe and US, which will release its retail sales data. The pair is currently trading at 1.1232, which is slightly above last week’s low of 1.1175. It is also along the 21.6% Fibonacci Retracement level. This price is slightly along the 42-day and 21-day EMAs while the RSI has moved above the 50. The pair could move higher today to test the 38.6% Fibonacci level of 1.1270 or move lower to test the previous lows of 1.1175.
XAU/USD
The XAU/USD pair moved slightly higher today as traders cheered the new wave of consolidation in the gold-mining sector. The pair is currently trading at 1296, which is higher than last week’s low of 1280. This level is along the higher line of the Bollinger Bands. The Standard Deviation has been rising while the pair is along the 42-day moving average. The pair will likely continue moving up. Alternatively, it could drop to the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level of 1270.
GBP/USD
The GBP/USD pair declined today as the deadline for a Brexit deal neared. The pair reached a low of 1.2960, which is along the lower line of the Bollinger Bands on the four-hour chart. The pair is below the oversold level of 30 while the momentum indicator has fallen sharply. The pair could continue moving lower if there are signs that a deal will not be reached. If it does, it will likely test the 1.2900 support level.
