Gold and Bitcoin Are in the Focus of Traders Amid the Banking Crisis in the US

Traditionally, non-farm payrolls will be published on Friday, along with unemployment data. The interest rate decision was published on Wednesday along with a press conference with Jerome Powell.

The interest rate was raised to 5.25% as anticipated: a scheduled one-step hike. The current consensus forecast assumes that it will be the last interest rate hike within this year, after which monetary policy will stabilize or even become softer. However, Jerome Powell had sent a mixed signal to the market, claiming that current inflation is not pointing to a possibility of an interest rate decline and that FED observes modest economic growth rather than a recession.

After First Republic Bank was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & CO, Gold gets back into play as a potential hedge against the chaos. The level of fear of VIX stays below 20, which is a historically low level, though problems in the banking sector in the US are still there.

Two assets that are in focus for today, are Gold and Bitcoin. The latter serves as an alternative store of value amid collapsing regional banks in the US. The former is a usual hedge: the price of Gold is boosted by the rising value of credit default swaps for US banks.

BTCUSD

Bitcoin had landed on the 50-day moving average, which corresponds to the dynamic support zone in the context of a rising trend, and may bounce back higher as shown in the chart. It looks stronger than the equity markets, as S&P500 and Nasdaq are consolidating, but Bitcoin is being dynamically accumulated, which might potentially turn into a bigger move with a target at $31000.

Gold

Gold had gained good momentum amid banking turmoil in the US, and tries to take another important resistance area of 2050. Currently, there are two basic scenarios for XAUUSD: if it will go higher this week, the move may happen quickly before NFP publication. Otherwise, it may get back to the support around $2000 below, after which it may find a new buying stepping in.