First, a review of last week’s forecast:

  • EUR/USD. The past week was filled with events, which at another time could initiate quite strong movements in the market. But not now, not at the height of the holiday season. We did not expect any surprises either from the data on the Eurozone GDP or from the values of the consumer price index. There was a little hope for the US Federal Reserve’s decision on the interest rate and on the publication of data on the US labor market, but there were no special volatility outbursts there either. Even the drop in the NFP by 36.7% (from 248K to 157K) did not impress the market.
    As a result, the situation was as had been expected by many experts: taking into account the standard backlash, the pair stayed within the two-week zone 1.1575-1.1750, reaching a maximum of 1.1745, then groping for the local bottom at 1.1560 and finally ending the five-day session at the mark 1.1567;
  • GBP/USD. The future of the British pound was not encouraging, even despite the Bank of England’s possible increase in the interest rate – 65% of experts considered that the GBP/USD would continue its decline to the zone of 1.3000.
    This prediction turned out to be absolutely correct. On the eve of raising the rate, the pound grew slightly. Then, as expected, on Thursday, August 2, the regulator lifted it from 0.50% to 0.75%. But then the accompanying commentary made it clear that one should not expect another increase in the foreseeable future – they say, the economy is not all right, and there are problems with the Brexit. As a result, the pair turned around and quickly fell to the horizon 1.2975. And it met the end of the week’s session exactly where the experts expected, at 1.3000;
  • USD/JPY. The report on the monetary policy of the Bank of Japan, collapsed the yen, instead of strengthening it. The main theses from its head Haruhiko Kuroda speech were interpreted by the market as the intention to preserve ultra-soft policy and to stimulate the weakening of the Japanese currency by increasing the yield of 10-year government bonds.
    As a result, the USD/JPY quotes jumped to 112.15. However, the pair did not manage to consolidate at this height and, having gone down about 90 points, it finished the week at the level of 111.25;
  • Cryptocurrencies. This market was controlled by the bears for the whole week. The fact that bitcoin and major altcoins were recently overbought sided with the bears. The absence of positive news from regulators and market makers did not help the growth either.
    As a result, the BTCUSD fell by $1,000, losing about 12% during the week, and reached the mid-July value around $7,280 per coin.
    The Ethereum (ETH-X) lost even more, about 14%, breaking at some point the support at $400. Litecoin (LTC-X) lost 11%, but the ripple was more stable: having fallen by 7%, it then turned and gained back 2.5%; 
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