Summary:

• Strong selling seen in crypto space with 5%+ declines
• USDJPY probes pivotal resistance
• GBP looks to recover after GDP release
• Copper falls back near 12-month low
• Preview of key upcoming events; US CPI and ECB minutes

There’s been some notable declines in cryptocurrencies today with all 5 markets being hit and falling in excess of 5% at the time of writing. Over the past 24 hours the major virtual currencies went down and lost their recent gains. The capitalization of the whole market sits a notch below $265 billion while excluding Bitcoin this figure stands at $150 billion. The next positive messages about cryptocurrencies and blockchain come from important people and companies.

 We noted yesterday that 3 USD pairs were testing key levels as the buck threatened to break down against the EUR, NOK and TRY but now less than 24 hours later the greenback is looking to make a break to the upside against the JPY. The USDJPY has enjoyed a good move higher in recent months after making a low of 104.65 back in March but the cross has now reached a potentially crucial resistance level.

 The British pound declined when a package of industrial data for May was released even as economic growth in three months through May ultimately bounced back. It’s peculiar that for all an array of political changes in the Theresa May’s cabinet the likelihood of a rate hike next month stays around 80% seeing only a brief fall to 70% on Monday. Sterling has recovered somewhat as the session wore on and trades higher on the day against all of its peers on the European close. 

The price of Copper is trading lower once more today, with the industrial metal falling back near its lowest level in a year. One interesting point to note about the market lately is the number of red closes seen with the last 9 sessions all ending lower – even though there has been some gaps up in this time. Looking at Copper related news an interesting story from the far east grabs the attention with the liquidation of a $1B bet placed by a Chinese investor an obvious source of some of the latest selling pressure.

The US dollar has commenced this week on a wrong foot, but since then it has been able to trim its losses to some extent while US stocks are continuing to push higher. Nevertheless, this week abounds in two crucial releases which could substantially affect both the EURUSD as well as the SP500 (US500).