Asian stocks traded mixed in early Wednesday after their U.S. peers declined on renewed concerns over the epidemic’s economic impact. . The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped from a record intraday high, while airlines and hotels were particularly hard hit. It is a calendar light day for Wednesday and investors are looking at the China stock market to continue the rally.
USD held on to gains on Wednesday as S&P stopped the 5-day winning streak, the longest winning streak since this January. Investors are focusing on the surging cases in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Safe havens are back in the favour, including Treasuries.
Copper prices rallied to highs not seen since the pre-pandemic period as the bulls remained in control, with the Chinese equity markets putting in the best daily performance in five-years. Looking ahead, we could be seeing a limited upside in copper prices as we are seeing a bearish divergence between prices and Stochastic, which could signal a change in momentum.
Gold prices held steady, after surpassing its 8 year high yesterday, as the surging number of Covid-19 cases worldwide buoy demand for the safe haven asset. Meanwhile, Gold also benefited from the low interest rates environment and fiscal stimulus measures adopted by central banks as it is often seen as a hedge against currency debasement and inflation.
Oil held below $41 a barrel as the US crude stockpile inventory report came up showing that inventories were building up. Coupled with the fact that Texas’ daily cases and Arizona’s deaths are hitting new highs, the demand for oil looks bleak. The threat to oil demand from the virus still remains real. Further, in line with oil prices, CAD weakened as well. A wave of risk-off sentiment fueled by economic recovery concerns made the loonie underperform.
Technical & Trade views
USDCAD (Intraday bias: bullish above 1.3527)
We turned bearish as price is approaching 1st resistance where the horizontal swing high is and is likely to reverse off the level towards 1st support where the horizontal overlap support is. Stochastics also indicates bearishness.
UKOIL (Intraday bias: Bearish below 42.73)
Oil holding below descending trendline resistance and Stochastics is reacting below resistance as well. A break below downside confirmation at 42.73 should strengthen the bearish drop towards 1st support at 42.13.
XAUUSD (Intraday bias: Bearish below 1788.11) 
Price is testing our resistance where we might see a reversal below this level, a break below our downside confirmation level could provide the bearish acceleration to our first support level.
XCUUSD ( Intraday bias: bearish below 2.79988)
Price is facing bearish pressure from our first resistance where we remain bearish below this level and could see a further drop to our first support level, in line with our horizontal pullback support, 38.2% fibonacci retracement and 61.8% fibonacci extension. Stochastic is seeing a bearish divergence and facing bearish pressure from our resistance as well.
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Desmond Leong runs an award-winning research firm (The Technical Analyst finalists 2018/19/20 for Best FX and Equity Research) advising banks, brokers and hedge funds. Backed by a team of CFA, CMT, CFTe accredited traders, he takes on the market daily using a combination of technical and fundamental analysis.