We're gonna keep the brief brief today as I'm about to hop on a plane over to London.
Will be staying fairly central for the next week and probably won't stray far from Piccadilly, so if you're in the neighborhood feel free to hit me up on eToro, Twitter, or LinkedIn).
Today's Highlights
China Stocks Slide
From Solid to Strong
XRP Spike
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of August 2nd. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Traditional Markets
Now that a lot of the big companies have reported their quarterly earnings, markets may return their attention to the trade war.
Helping them retain focus...
Chinese stocks are melting at the moment with theChina 50 down a massive 5% today.
Fed Upgrade + BoE on Deck
As expected the Fed meeting yesterday flew way under the radar. No change was made to interest rates or monetary policy. However, the did upgrade their outlook on the economy from "solid" to "strong."
So continues the dissonance that we highlighted in Monday's market update (entitled: Cupcakes & Rainbows).
Up next is the Bank of England who for the first time since November 2nd are expected to adjust their interest rates.
The economy isn't doing particularly well but it does seem that the BoE is in a bit of a jam and may need to do something to firm up monetary policy.
The Pound Sterling has weakened significantly since the highs experienced earlier this year and, given the tight downward channel, Governor Carney will have to tread very carefully going forward.
XRP Spike
Yesterday we saw a nice little pop in Ripple's XRP token. The reasons for some people to be bullish are pretty clear at the moment.
What isn't clear is the suddenness of the spike. Using hindsight analysis, we can see that the move was building up throughout the morning (purple circle). Once it passed 0.4375 per token, things accelerated quite rapidly leading to a 6% surge in the span of an hour.
It even took XLM along for the ride...
Nobody can really say for sure but there are a lot of theories floating around that some large banks might be stress testing the system for much wider adoption. Though the transaction numbers are declining, it is entirely possible that someone is accumulating some XRP reserves.
We'll need to keep tracking Ripple's main blockchain over the next few days to see if we can notice any increased activity.
Wishing you an amazing day ahead!
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Disclosure: This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.