Market news & insights

The Kroger Company (KR) released its latest financial results for Q2 on Friday. The American grocery supermarket chain reported revenue of $34.638 billion for the quarter vs. $34.461 billion estimate. Earnings per share also beat analyst estimates at $0.90 per share vs. $0.82 per share expected. "Kroger delivered strong second quarter results propelled by our Leading with Fresh and Accelerating with Digital strategy.

We are incredibly thankful for our dedicated associates who continue to deliver a full, fresh and friendly customer experience," CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen said in a press release. "Our consistent performance underscores the resiliency and flexibility of our business model, which enables Kroger to thrive in many different operating environments. We are applying technology and innovation to improve freshness, grow Our Brands, and create a seamless shopping experience so our customers can get what they want, when and how they want it, with zero compromise on quality, selection and affordability." We will continue to focus on providing affordable, fresh food to our customers, investing in wages and the associate experience, and creating zero hunger, zero waste communities because when we do those things well, we deliver attractive and sustainable shareholder returns," McMullen added. The Kroger Company (KR) chart The stock price of Kroger rose by around 5% on Friday, trading at $51.07 a share.

Here is how the stock has performed in the past year: 1 month +8.20% 3 months -0.02% Year-to-date +12.86% 1 year +19.71% Kroger price targets Credit Suisse $55 Oppenheimer $51 Guggenheim $57 Morgan Stanley $41 Deutsche Bank $53 BNP Paribas $60 The Kroger Company is the 450 th largest company in the world with a market cap of $36.27 billion. You can trade The Kroger Company (KR) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD. Sources: The Kroger Company, TradingView, MetaTrader 5, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap

The United States used 30.28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2021, making them the world’s largest consumer of natural gas. Natural gas consumption in the United States has two seasonal peaks, largely reflecting weather-related fluctuations in energy demand. One of the biggest consumptions of gas is industrial, residential and commercial cooling and heating systems (eia, 2022).

As the world’s largest user of natural gas transitions out of summer, will this change indicate a decrease of their natural gas consumption? Could the decrease in demand for cooling be reflected on the technical charts? On a daily timeframe, natural gas has been on a steady upward trend since the end of June, in tandem with the beginning of summer in the US (seen on the chart below).

A trendline from the beginning of that trend until now can be drawn, and we can see recently that line has been broken by a daily candlestick, closing below the trendline which can indicate a change in trend for natural gas. After the strong break below of the trendline followed by multiple bearish daily candlesticks, we can consequently expect further downside movement for natural gas, after breaking through a strong support at $8.4, in all probability with natural gas currently sitting at $7.895 we could see natural gas come down to the next support level around $7.57.

NIO Q2 results have arrived NIO Inc. (NIO) reported its unaudited second quarter financial results on Wednesday. The Chinese electric vehicle maker reported revenue of $1.538 billion for the quarter, beating analyst estimate of $1.458 billion. Loss per share reported at -$0.20 per share vs. -$0.16 loss per share expected.

William Bin Li, founder, chairman and CEO of the EV company commented on NIO’s performance in Q2: ''We delivered 25,059 vehicles in the second quarter of 2022, representing a growth of 14.4% year-over-year despite the COVID-19 related challenges. With the teams’ concerted efforts, our deliveries started to recover and achieved 10,052 and 10,677 units in July and August, respectively." "The second half of 2022 is a critical period for NIO to scale up the production and delivery of multiple new products. The ES7, our first mid-large five-seater smart electric SUV based on NIO Technology 2.0 (NT2.0), has become a new favorite of the market with its superior performance, comfort and digital experience.

We witnessed a robust order inflow for the ES7 and started its deliveries at scale in August. We also look forward to starting the mass production and delivery of the ET5 in late September. With the compelling product portfolio and well-established brand awareness, NIO will attract a broader user base and embrace robust growth in the coming quarters," Li concluded.

NIO has delivered a total of 238,626 vehicles as of August 31, 2022. The company expects deliveries of between 31,000 to 33,000 in Q3 and revenue of between $1.913 billion and $2.030 billion. NIO Inc. (NIO) chart The stock was up by around 3% at the market open in the US on Wednesday, trading at $17.88 a share.

Here is how the stock has performed in the past year: 1 month -14.66% 3 months -16.05% Year-to-date -45.99% 1 year -55.14% NIO price targets B of A Securities $26 UBS $32 Mizuho $60 Morgan Stanley $34 Barclays $34 Deutsche Bank $70 Goldman Sachs $56 NIO Inc. is the 15 th largest automaker in the world with a market cap of $28.62 billion. You can trade NIO Inc. (NIO) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD. Sources: NIO Inc., TradingView, MarketWatch, Benzinga, CompaniesMarketCap

Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate Oil both fell to their lowest levels since January as fresh recession fears swept the market. Brent dropped to $87 a barrel and WTI to $81. The prices dropped following OPEC’s decision to cut the production by 100,000 barrels a day of supply from October.

In recent months with the Russian and Ukraine conflict raging, OPEC had to lift production as supply dipped. However, with the decreasing health of the global economy and a incredibly strong US dollar demand for overseas oil has dipped. Poor economic data from China and its Covid zero strategy has also pushed concerns of weaker demand.

In fact, China’s crude oil important dropped by 9.4% from a year earlier signalling the slowdown in demand. Furthermore, with the US federal reserve expected to remain hawkish until inflation is back to a sustainable level, in the short term there is little resistance in the way of the US dollar continuing to grind its way higher, further pressuring the price of oil. Whilst the current dip may provide some relief for consumers, with uncertainty from the Kremlin and Putin potentially capping their energy exports, the short term volatility will likely continue.

As it can be seen from the charts below, both WTI and Brent have broken down through their key support levels. The price may struggle to fall lower in the immediate short term and may need to consolidate in the short term before pushing lower again.

Have you ever heard the saying, “70% of trading is in the head”? This is because the markets are mostly moved with sentiment, a good barometer to gauge is the Fear and Greed index, emotions trigger actions, there is a reason why there are sellers and buyers in the market at the same time, yes it can be attributed to the way people take in information or understand the data, in a normal day, there are always winners, as there are always losers. So, with that in mind you might understand that this information or data is truly important to traders as it impacts heavily on the markets, as such that, as a trader it would be irresponsible for you to focus solely on the Technical Analysis and disregard the Fundamentals.

However, you could be able to trade Fundamentals without the Technical Analysis. What is Fundamental News? The best way to answer this, is by acknowledging that the performance of an economy is a direct result of different political, social and economic outcomes.

These could differ from the release of figures of the unemployment rate to interest rates, from elections to the GDP, to geopolitical events such as the invasion of Ukraine to a countries coup or BREXIT. All of these have profound effects on the price of commodities, currencies, bonds, or securities, as it would either make the asset easily accessible or as in recent times with COVID it makes is harder to supply it when there is huge demands. Investors are always on the lookout for small details that would help them decipher if their investments are in sound condition or if they need to do something to avoid losing their positions.

Typically, if you are trading CFDs you would look to an Economic Calendar – It’s just like a standard calendar, which provides timelines of specific reports and/or meetings which will take place in the future, from various countries around the world. You could see one here at Forex Factory. A great tool which will aid traders to set up their trades in advance or allow them to make a decision to see if it would be wise to keep a trade open during the event, or open a trade before or wait until the fact to enter the market.

As you begin to follow economic announcements, you may understand why some events—like the consumer price index—may cause markets to move. But you may wonder why it’s important to follow lesser events, like the food price index. Usually, a major event provides an indication of the state of the economy.

But traders follow lesser events because they provide an indication of upcoming major announcements. For example, a jump in food prices may mean the consumer price index will jump as well. An example of an economic calendar is below.

Fundamental Analysis consists of the trader keeping track of all these factors within the reports and how they have affected the market. Fundamental analysis can also cover broader aspects of trading depending on the asset in question. The various fundamental factors can be grouped into two categories: quantitative and qualitative.

The financial meaning of these terms isn't much different from their standard definitions. Here is how a dictionary defines the terms: Quantitative – "related to information that can be shown in numbers and amounts." Qualitative – "relating to the nature or standard of something, rather than to its quantity." In this context, quantitative fundamentals are hard numbers. They are the measurable characteristics of a business.

That's why the biggest source of quantitative data is financial statements. Revenue, profit, cash flow, assets, wages and more can be measured with great precision. Fundamental Trading can be done in various ways depending on your availability – some reports are released late in the night or early morning depending on your perspective, which mean, you may be asleep so trading these may require a level of organisation from your part in terms of understanding how to set up pending orders, with the right risk management in place to take you out of the trade whether it has reached your desired profit limit or the amount you’d be happy to risk losing or trade the action live as you see the reaction of the price movement.

All In all Fundamental news, analysis and trading are a major facet of trading, it is also right to mention, that some fundamental traders would incorporate technical analysis from time to time to create stronger affirmations in their research. Sources: babypips.com, https://www.contracts-for-difference.com/, https://www.investopedia.com/, www.forexfactory.com

With central banks aggressively hiking interest rates to combat inflation, one specific country stands alone in maintaining a dovish stance. The country is Japan, and the consequence of the Central Bank of Japan’s ultra-dovish policy has been a massive weakening of its currency. Against almost all other currencies the JPY has been depreciating aggressively.

Specifically, the USD/JPY and the NZD/JPY are shaping as potentially trading opportunities. Both trading opportunities are largely based on a technical breakout as opposed to a pure fundamental breakout. NZD/JPY This currency pair is forming into a symmetrical triangle pattern.

Importantly the price has been contracting and the range getting smaller. This shows that the price is reaching an equilibrium point between buyers and sellers. However, at some point and the price will not be able to contract further and will have to break out either to the upside or the downside.

The general rule of a symmetrical triangle is to wait until the price breaks before taking a position because the price has not indicated if it will break upward or downward. In addition, the RSI indicates a similar pattern showing consolidation in the same type of triangle. Therefore, a break of this RSI triangle may correlate and support a break out on the actual price.

USD/JPY This pair has seen an even more extreme move upward. After pulling back to the recent support at the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level, the price has risen again and is looking to test the highs at 139.5 JPY. In order to find a new target the chat needs to be zoomed out to the monthly in order to see the next resistance point which is at 145JPY.

This would also take the price to almost 25 year highs. With more economic data to come out of the USA later this week.