BoJ shakes up the Yen market
28 April 2023
Thursday marked a remarkable day for stock market buyers, as indices saw a surge in prices, and several companies announced excellent earnings. Among them was Meta Platforms, which published its results after the session on Wednesday, resulting in a bullish gap on Thursday. The upward trend continued on Friday, with the Nasdaq climbing from monthly lows to highs, while the SP500 and Dow Jones broke their mid-term down trendlines, indicating a buy signal.
However, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) caused a stir in the Yen market, announcing a review of its policy in the coming months. This news led to traders selling Yen, while the US Dollar ended the week positively. The EURUSD broke the mid-term uptrend line, while the USDCAD achieved new monthly highs, and the USDCHF displayed a promising hammer candle on the weekly chart, indicating potential for a bullish correction.
This week was particularly significant for oil, with both WTI and Brent closing the gap that was created at the beginning of the month by the OPEC+ production cut announcement. While some traders were skeptical of the bullish potential of this news, Wednesday's closing of the bullish gap was technically impressive.
In the commodities market, there was a bearish slide in oil, but gold remained relatively unchanged. Gold has been inside a pennant formation for the past two weeks, and a breakout from this pattern is likely next week, particularly with the FOMC minutes and NFP calendar events. As such, traders should exercise caution when trading this precious metal.