EUR/USD Bulls Fail to Press 1.1500 - Builds Possible Lower-HighFor EUR/USD it's what didn't happen this week...
Despite a seemingly open door for bulls to run a breakout, helped along by a Christine Lagarde that sounded less dovish than usual at Friday's rate cut, the pair put in a hard charge towards the 1.1500 handle but interestingly fell just about 5 pips short of the big figure. That's the same price that helped to bring a pullback back in April but in that instance, bulls were able to force a test above - and this time, it's as if sellers were waiting at the ready - and unwilling to miss the shot to get short. This can be read as bearish anticipation and while it's not an automatic indication of reversal, it can be an attractive first step towards that.
So far there remains bullish potential on the daily chart as the past week has produced both a higher-low and a higher-high. But from the four hour, deeper pullback potential appears as a breach of the 1.1400 level shows a shorter-term lower-low. And that, combined with the failure to test 1.1500, makes EUR/USD an attractive venue if looking for USD-strength. And if looking for USD-weakness it seems that there are more attractive options out there, such as GBP/USD which did set a fresh three-year-high this week even as EUR/USD held at a lower-high. - js
