Friday's non-farm payrolls report failed to put an end to the market's summer lethargy and instead of giving direction, most major currency pairs remained virtually unchanged after some short-term fluctuations during payrolls release.
While the August jobs report came in weaker than-expected, tempering speculation of an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September, the market's reaction to the report was restrained with both euro and cable rising only marginally. The market environment therefore became somewhat unattractive for traders since large market movements have become a rarity.
In terms of economic market moving data, there is not much going on this week. From the U.S., the only important pieces of economic data are the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (Tuesday) and the Fed's Beige Book (Wednesday). The most important event this week will be the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement on Thursday.
The ECB meeting could trigger some market moves as the central bank is expected to lengthen quantitative easing for a second time. Although the ECB is not expected to cut interest rates, Thursday's meeting is the most likely opportunity to announce more stimulus or change the QE program. We therefore expect the euro to come under pressure ahead of the announcement.
Technically, we will focus on a break of the 1.1120-level in order to sell euros towards 1.1080 and 1.1050. On the upside, a break above 1.1330 could change the bias in favor of the bulls.
The British pound was able to maintain its price level around the 1.33-mark. As stated in our analysis for subscribers we saw chances of a test of 1.3370 and 1.34 if the pound climbs above 1.3350.
Indeed, sterling rallied on a stronger-than-expected U.K. services PMI this morning but gains were limited until 1.3376 for the time being. Sterling traders should also keep an eye on the Industrial and Manufacturing Production figures on Wednesday.
The U.S. market will remain closed for a public holiday on Monday, so we expect volatility to be low and recommend traders to take profits at lower targets given the calm market.
Here are our daily signal alerts:
EUR/USD
Long at 1.1210 SL 25 TP 20-30
Short at 1.1140 SL 25 TP 30-40
GBP/USD
Long at 1.3370 SL 25 TP 30-40
Short at 1.3289 SL 25 TP 20, 40
We wish you good trades and many pips!
Disclaimer: Any and all liability of the author is excluded.