STOCK FUTURES TILT UPWARDS AHEAD OF AMAZON AND ALPHABET EARNINGS

American futures tilted higher cautiously as investors waited for key quarterly earnings scheduled for this week. Some of the top companies expected to publish their results are Amazon, Alphabet, AMD, Pentair, Meta Platforms and Electronic Arts. On Amazon, analysts expect that the company’s business did well in the fourth quarter, helped by cloud segment.

Analysts will watch Alphabet’s and Meta’s business because of their advertising business. The fourth-quarter is usually a good period for the businesses as companies boost their holiday marketing budget. On EA, analysts will be watching for the company’s reaction to the ongoing wave of mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry.

The price of crude oil rose in early trading as investors watched the situation between the United States and Russia. Most Western countries have said that they will not commit their militaries to fight for Ukraine. Therefore, the main policy response to Russia will be sanctions, which will target most industries, including the oil and gas one. As such, there is a likelihood that there will be an oil supply shortage. Another major concern is in the natural gas industry. There is a likelihood that Russia will respond by cutting off gas supplies to Europe which explains why the price of natural gas has surged.

The economic calendar will have some key economic data today. On Sunday, data from China showed that the country’s manufacturing sector continued to struggle in January as the cost of doing business escalated. Later today, Eurostat will publish the latest GDP data from the European Union. Analysts expect the data to show that the bloc’s economy expanded by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. That growth will be driven by countries like France and Spain that had a strong economic growth. Other data to watch today will be the latest Germany CPI data and its import and export price index.

EURUSD

The EURUSD pair has been in a strong bearish trend over the past few days. On the daily chart, the pair managed to break below the bearish flag pattern. It also declined below the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is approaching the oversold level. Therefore, the pair will likely continue falling as bears target the next key support at 1.1100.

USDCHF

The USDCHF pair continued its bullish momentum as the US dollar strength continued. The pair is trading at 0.9300, which is slightly below last week’s high of 0.9335. On the four-hour chart, the pair has moved above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has also moved to the overbought level of 70 while the Stochastic Oscillator has stated declining. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the pair will continue rising ahead of US jobs data.

GBPUSD

The GBPUSD pair has been under pressure in the past few months. The pair has formed a bearish flag pattern. It has also moved slightly below the 25-day and 50-day moving averages. The MACD has moved below the neutral level. Therefore, the pair will likely keep falling as bears target the next key support at 1.3350.