CFT Update, Monday, March 20th 2023
BTC and ETH soared last week, with BTC and ETH reaching their highest level of the year above $27,800 and $1,800, and closing last Friday near $27,470 and $1,790, up +35.8% and +25.4% from their level a week ago – $20,200 and $1,430 with cryptos benefitting from the ‘store of value’ narrative strengthening amid bank failures.
Despite a turbulent week, S&P and Nasdaq managed to edge higher, closing near 3,916 and 11,630, up +1.4% and +4.4% over the week with markets keeping their optimism amidst the financial hurdles at Silvergate, Signature Bank and of SVB Group as the focus shifted to Europe with the financial situation at Credit Suisse spurring concerns about further distress in the economy, overshadowing the latest inflation gauge, the consumer price index – CPI – rising 0.4% in February and 6% from a year ago, in line with market expectations.
US Treasuries yield dipped as the fall in Equities sparked a flight to safer assets such as government bonds – thus lowering the yields, the yields on the 10Y and 2Y Treasury closing near 3.44% and 3.85% with the chances of raising interest rates to 4.75-5% by hiking interest rates with a 25 bps rate hike have scaled down to 62% from 71% last week ahead of the FOMC meeting this week. DXY edged moderately lower closing near 103.86 from 104.6 the week before and Oil price continued its decline, near $66 on Friday from $76 the week before, as the banking crisis adds to concerns of lower demand.
Cryptos are extending their rally today with BTC hovering above $28,000 as markets, this week will turn their focus to this Tuesday and Wednesday Fed’s rate decision while keeping an eye on the unwrapping of the financial hurdles in the banking sector.
On Thursday, the BoE will also communicate its rate decisions while the U.K. and Japan will release the latest inflation figures for February on Friday.
Client Profits
We opened short positions on BTC and ETH as BTC broke above $25,000 and continued to rally and hits the $28,500 resistance.
The exposure to the market is now 9% of the AUM, the rest being in cash.
BTC
BTC soared this past week, reaching its highest level of the year above $27,800 and settling last Friday near $27,470, up +35.8% with cryptos benefitting from the ‘store of value’ narrative strengthening amid bank failures.
BTC’s 30-day Historical Volatility – HV- remains above the 60% mark, pretty much in line with its level from a week ago.
Price action steadily increased throughout the week with the sessions of Monday and Friday seeing most of the gain – above 9% in each session. On Friday, price action broke above the upward-sloping resistance of our parallel channel and confirmed over the weekend with BTC briefly surpassing $28,000 for the first time in 9 months and reaching $28,470 on Sunday as cryptos benefitted from the bank crisis with the Credit Suisse-UBS deal news, which had Equity investors worry about further distress in the economy.
BTC is trading flat today, now trading near $28,030, bringing the MTD performance for March to +22% and the YTD performance for 2023 to +70%.
On the upside, the $30,000 / $31,000 region now acts as new resistance with next resistances near $32,000 while the next support to watch in the downside is the upsloping trendline of the parallel channel, near the $26,300 level currently and then the $25,000 region and further down the ATH from Dec 2017 just under $20,000 and major support near $18,350 further below.
ETH
Like BTC, ETH soared last week, trading near $1,790 on Friday with a high above $1,800 during the session, up +25.4% over the week.
Price action continued to rise over the weekend, briefly breaking above the upward-sloping resistance of our parallel channel – near $1,815 – and ETH is now trading flat, near $1,730 and back within our upward-sloping parallel channel with the $1,825 level acting as resistance and in the downside our upward sloping trendline acting as minor support, currently near $1,650 with major support near $1,375.
The MTD performance for March is now +9.3% and the YTD performance for 2023 of +47%.
Other markets
Despite an eventful week, S&P and Nasdaq managed to edge higher, closing near 3,916 and 11,630, up +1.4% and +4.4% over the week with markets keeping their optimism amidst the financial hurdles at Silvergate, Signature Bank and of SVB Group as the focus shifted to Europe with the financial situation at Credit Suisse spurring concerns about further distress in the economy, overshadowing the latest inflation gauge, the consumer price index – CPI – rising 0.4% in February and 6% from a year ago, in line with market expectations.
S&P and Nasdaq price actions continuously edged higher over the week, with most of the gains stemming from Thursday, allowing prices to surpass their 200 MA level – 200 MA currently near 3,940 and 11,390.
S&P and Nasdaq are starting this week in positive territory, near 3,950 and 11,675, bringing the MTD performance for the month of March to -0.4% and +2% and the YTD performance to +2.9% and +11.5% respectively.
DXY
DXY edged moderately lower closing near 103.86 from 104.6 the week before.
DXY is trading flat today, near 103.3 currently testing its 103.4 support as markets await the FOMC meeting later this week. In the upside, the 200 MA acts as resistance – near 106.6.
US Treasuries
US Treasuries yield dipped as the fall in Equities sparked a flight to safer assets such as government bonds – thus lowering the yields, the yields on the 10Y and 2Y Treasury closing near 3.44% and 3.85% with the chances of raising interest rates to 4.75-5% by hiking interest rates with a 25 bps rate hike have scaled down to 62% from 71% last week ahead of the FOMC meeting this week. DXY edged moderately lower closing near 103.86 from 104.6 the week before.
With the recent UBS- Credit Suisse deal news and the latest interventions from the central banks, investors are now revising their Fed rate expectations early this week. The 10Y and 2Y yield is trading lower today near 3.48% and 3.97% from 3.54% and 4.02% last Monday – as the chances of raising interest rates to 4.75-5% have scaled down.