From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

The US Dollar remains at crucial inflection points versus both emerging and developed currencies.

In last week’s note, we pointed out the critical 19 level in the WisdomTree Emerging Currency Fund $CEW, along with the numerous tests of support in our custom USD vs. BRICS Currency Index.

Not only is the USD looking increasingly vulnerable against emerging and developed currencies, but we’re now starting to see some of the major Dollar crosses break down or resolve lower.

In many cases, these moves are confirming long-term reversal patterns with USD/CAD. For example, the Dollar just broke to fresh multi-year lows relative to the Canadian Dollar.

We reviewed the chart in this column a few weeks back, highlighting the possibility of an impending double top. 

Well, here’s what it looks like now:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

We’ve recently pointed out the possible double tops in the Dollar index and the USD/CAD, along with our overall outlook for further weakness from king dollar.

But can we find other areas of the market that could provide further insight into the US Dollar’s direction?

After all, many market participants are fixated on the direction of the US Dollar right now as it approaches its key mutlti-year lows.

Why does the Dollar matter so much to investors?

Firs of all, USD and risk assets have had a very strong negative correlation over the last several years. The USD Index bottomed in early 2018 as stock markets around the world peaked. Conversely, the dollar topped during the Covid sell-off when stocks bottomed out at their March 2020 lows.

To gain a clearer picture of the USD, we need to go beyond the Dollar Index and developed currencies.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

One of the most frustrating questions plaguing investors at the moment is... "How long will this choppy environment last?"

And one question we’re asking internally is… “What is with all these mixed signals!?”

Once the latter clears itself up, we'll have our answer to the former... But not until then.

When the outlook becomes increasingly murky, the best action is to take a step back, let the smoke clear, and weigh each new piece of evidence as it becomes available.

For now, the most important evidence we have is our list of risk-on commodities and equity indexes testing critical levels of interest grows larger by the day.

There seems to be no end in sight. Complicating matters further, we’re actually seeing this kind of price action throughout the risk asset landscape. It's not isolated to a single asset class or region. We're seeing it in Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, and even Currency Markets... and not just in the US, but also abroad.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Is the US Dollar Index $DXY on the brink of completing a massive reversal pattern to the downside? 

As more evidence comes into the picture, it's looking increasingly dire for the dollar. In fact, we're seeing it trend lower across all timeframes against almost all of its peers.

And this action has only gained steam over the last week as DXY has plunged to fresh multi-month lows.

Dollar weakness has been a nice tailwind for risk assets since its peak in March of last year. Any additional downside pressure in the coming weeks, months, and even quarters would not surprise us... especially if this daunting double-top pattern breaks lower. If and when this happens, further weakness from both a tactical and structural standpoint is exactly the bet we'll be making.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

The first step in approaching any market is to identify the primary trend.

Is price going up, down, or sideways? Simple!

But it's easy to lose sight of the long-term trend sometimes, especially if you don't zoom out enough. This is why our process of looking at monthly candlesticks is so important. It literally forces us to take a step back and focus on the structural trends at play.

And that’s exactly what we did in this week’s Currency Report. When looking through all of our monthly charts, the big picture view of the US Dollar / Swiss Franc pair really stood out. We're going to discuss it in today's post.                                          

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

A growing number of domestic and international markets are running into key levels of interest. 

This is a theme we’ve discussed at length over the past six weeks. We've also discussed how we see similar developments in the Commodities and Fixed Income markets.

With this as our backdrop, are you surprised that we're also seeing similar action in the Forex markets right now? 

We aren’t! 

In this post, we'll highlight two traditional risk-on currency pairs, both of which are trading at critical inflection points. 

Let's dive right in.

First up is the AUD/JPY cross. This FX cross is the classic risk-on/risk-off gauge within the currency markets -- and since last November, it has been sending a clear message of “risk-on!”

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Last week, we highlighted the USD testing a critical level against the Rand. This is a theme we've been seeing a lot in a variety of USD crosses recently and will discuss more in a post later this week.

We’re finally beginning to see some resolutions from these key levels, and they're revealing some very valuable information regarding the Dollar’s strength and the likely future direction for the $DXY Index itself.

In this post, we'll take a look at some examples of this theme by showcasing two forex pairs from Northern Europe that are currently breaking down at major inflection points against the USD.

But before diving in, let's set the stage a bit...

What are some of the major developments in G-10 pairs that are driving the US Dollar Index right now?

Several areas of the market have reached key levels of support or resistance. 

Crude Oil continues to digest recent gains just below overhead supply near its former 2019 highs. 

The Euro/Dollar is finding support at the recently violated 12-year downtrend line. 

And the Emerging Markets ETF $EEM continues to consolidate near its 2007 highs.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar is also testing key levels. 

USD strength has become a major market theme over the last couple of months -- along with the potential effects it could have on global risk assets. A strong US Dollar could apply pressure to Emerging Markets, Commodities, and cyclical assets in general. This would challenge the global growth thesis and the rotation into cyclical areas we have seen play out over recent months.