Crypto steadies after recent gains

This Daily Digest will cover:

• 🚦 Crypto steadies after recent gains
• 💪 ETH/BTC cross continues to look strong
• 💵 USD bounces back on a Friday square up
• 🏙 Earnings season widens this week

Friday saw US retail sales come out below expectations completing a set of poor data, however this was offset by earnings for Q1 by banks with JP Morgan leading the way. This all led to a nasty squeeze on usd shorts as usd/jpy went from 132.10 to 134.00 and Euro/usd gave up the 1.1000 handle opening at 1.0990 this morning. Stocks whipsawed but ended the week mildly higher, lacking real momentum in either direction.

Crypto saw BTC trade near 31,000 and ETH 2150 before joining the turn around, albeit in gentle fashion. The ETH/BTC cross continues to trend higher and I see little reason to fade this move. The medium term benefits for ETH continue to appeal and the BTC dominance thus far in 2023 looks likely to wane in this environment until we vault 33,000. No change in view here we look to buy dips towards 2,000 and 28,500.

Earnings season ratchets up a notch this week with the likes of Netflix, Tesla, Goldmans and Bank of America reporting. Expect the bank to outperform following JPM and Citi but I will watch Netflix and Tesla with interest for signs of a consumer led slowdown.

As always, good luck.

Richard Usher
Head of OTC Trading