After weeks of failing to hold breakouts on an individual currency basis, the tight coil in the DXY finally resolved lower.
The brief reprieve in USD strength was immediately felt across markets last week, with cyclical/value stocks and procyclical commodities catching an aggressive bid.
Now that the headwinds associated with dollar strength appear to be easing, will risk assets enjoy a tailwind in the form of sustained USD weakness?
Or was this just the latest fake-out from the DXY?
Let’s take a look at a couple of charts and highlight the levels we're watching in the coming weeks and months.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
There's been a subtle risk-on tone in recent weeks. With each passing day, it's been spreading to more and more markets and charts.
Rates are rising around the globe. The underlying uptrend in commodities is intact and looks ready for another up leg. Our equal-weight commodity index is resolving higher from its current range. And cyclical stocks such as energy and financials are breaking out to new highs.
All of these events speak to a growing risk appetite and support higher prices for risk assets.
Although, two areas where we aren't seeing such clear evidence that risk-seeking behavior is re-entering the market would be currencies and our intermarket ratios.
The AUD/JPY cross is still stuck within a range. High-yield bonds $HYG relative to their safer alternatives -- US Treasuries $IEI -- failed to hold their recent highs. And the copper/gold ratio is a hot mess.
We would expect to see decisive upside resolutions from these charts if investors are positioning for another leg higher.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
The rally in the US Dollar Index $DXY is stalling out.
With each passing day, dollar internals are weakening, and the prospect of a bullish resolution from the current continuation pattern in DXY is diminishing. We expect these patterns to resolve quickly. And when they don’t, that’s information.
The bottom line is evidence continues to stack against the USD.
With that as our backdrop, let’s check in on a long USD trade that was triggered in November and outline how we want to navigate the coming days and weeks.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
As 2022 approaches, the latest evidence from currency markets suggest the US Dollar Index $DXY could be stalling out.
Whether it resolves higher from the current continuation pattern is a key question with broad market implications. While dollar strength has been a headwind during the second half of 2021, we think it cools off coming into 2022.
In our view, there's a good chance a weaker dollar will actually help put a bid in risk assets in the near future. This hasn’t been the case in a while, so let’s discuss what’s changed to make us feel this way.
Notice the short-term weakness in our US dollar trend summary table:
It's always fun having Paul Ciana on the podcast. You guys familiar with the show have already heard some our conversations over the years. They're always insightful, and he always gets me thinking.
While here at Allstarcharts.com we approach the world through the lens of an equities investor, and use other asset classes as a supplement, Paul does the exact opposite. His days both begin and end with the study of fixed-income markets, commodities, and currencies. Paul is the Chief Global FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America.
In this episode, we dive right into it starting with the US dollar, gold, crude oil, and the most important currency crosses for stock market investors to focus on.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
Major world currencies continue to struggle against the US dollar.
Both the euro and British pound have been coiling near 52-week lows against the dollar. We’re also seeing weakness spread among commodity-centric currencies, as the Canadian dollar hit new 52-week lows this week, and the Australian dollar accomplished the same earlier in the month. As for the safe-haven Japanese yen, USD/JPY hit its highest level since 2017 at the end of November.
The bottom line is that we continue to see broad strength from the greenback.
As we wait for a resolution either higher or lower, we can look to these individual forex pairs for an indication of which direction we’re likely headed.
Let’s revisit the potential failed breakdown from the Australian dollar earlier in the month and the recent action in the Canadian dollar for clues.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
All eyes have been on the US dollar and interest rates in recent weeks.
Last week, we saw a timely kick save from the bond market as the 30-year reclaimed its summer lows. Whether the latest rebound in rates will hold is yet to be seen as the 10 and 30 are currently chopping sideways just above our risk levels. We’re watching the long end of the curve closely to see how yields react at these critical levels.
But what about the US dollar?
When we analyze the US Dollar Index $DXY, it’s hard to be bearish, as price is consolidating in a tight continuation pattern following a base breakout and swift leg higher last month. As usual, the direction in which the DXY resolves will have broad market implications and will affect risk assets around the globe.
We know you’re probably tired of hearing it, but this is another big week for markets -- especially the dollar!
If there is anything that can get this market going it's the US Dollar.
And granted, the S&P500 did just close at a new all-time high. That did happen Friday.
But as we have documented relentlessly here, most stocks are not doing that.
The Average stock on the Nasdaq is down over 30% over the past few quarters.
Most Emerging Markets got destroyed. Chinese Internet is down 60%. Biotechs are crushed down almost 40%. The IPO Index killed. And ARKK Funds are down over 40%.
All is not well underneath the surface.
In fact, all of those sectors I mentioned peaked in February this year. That's when the Nasdaq New Highs list peaked and Nasdaq Advance-Decline lined also peaked.
Most importantly (potentially) is that was when Aussie Dollar peaked, and I don't believe that's a coincidence at all:
