Market set for another volatile week

The market looks for another volatile week as geopolitical concerns and high commodity prices look likely to remain a key factor in the last week of March. Market sentiment will also be dictated by the Federal Reserve’s responses to key core figures coming out later this week.

Commodities

Oil prices are set to remain in focus with concerns from the Saudi Arabian and Yemen conflict as well as Russia and Ukraine. Technically Brent crude has been able to consolidate at the $115.00 level. Gold has held its recent levels consistently and looks to continue its consolidation. Natural gas prices have performed very strongly and have confirmed their breakout as they reach their next resistance point at USD 6.00.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has seen some serious momentum on the back of Russia stating it may try and avoid sanctions by selling Gas and Oil via the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has seen a breakout of its range above its $45,000 resistance level. It is also at its highest price since the 5th of January. The pair has seen a consistent level of buy volume stepping up over the last week indicating bullish sentiment.

Ethereum also broke out of its range although it hasn’t yet been able to sustain the move.  After the breakout out of broke resistance at $3280 the price retraced back to that level and has been holding there since. The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $3277 at 10.24GMT.

FOREX news

With equities moving relatively strongly over the last few weeks, all eyes will be on the US Core PCE Price Index which will be announced on Thursday later this week. Employment figures will also be announced later this week. Figures that cause the Federal Reserve to raise rates should give the USD an upward push, whilst potentially bringing equity prices down.

The USD/JPY took a breath before holding at its highs at 122.29 JPY as it continues its massive move upward. The AUD/USD pair is still holding above 0.75 USD as it looks to consolidate its breakout of long-term channel.