Japan’s monetary base saw a slight improvement in January, with a year-on-year change rising to -9.5% from the previous -9.8%. This marks a subtle shift in the country’s monetary policy environment.<\/p>\n
In the currency market, EUR\/GBP remains cautious near a five-month low of 0.8620, amidst focus on ECB and BOE policies. Meanwhile, gold holds steady above $4,800 as the softer USD balances easing geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n
GBP\/JPY is flat below 213.00, with fears of intervention offering some advantage to the JPY. Meanwhile, GBP\/USD stays above 1.3650 as the Bank of England’s rate decision remains impending.<\/p>\n
In the commodities sector, gold continues its advance, though limited, amid a weaker USD. Ripple (XRP) steadies after last week’s sell-off but grapples below resistance at $1.77, with declining on-chain activity and retail interest.<\/p>\n
Zilliqa experiences a robust rally of over 20% preceding the Cancun EVM upgrade. Amidst this, the macro environment appears improved despite global geopolitical tensions earlier in 2026. The market’s response underscores the resilience and adaptability of economic indicators amidst global uncertainties.<\/p>\n
The Japanese monetary base is still contracting, but the pace is slowing down. This subtle shift, combined with market fears of currency intervention, suggests the yen is at a critical turning point after a long period of weakness. We believe positioning for a spike in volatility with options strategies like straddles on USD\/JPY is a sensible move.<\/p>\n
Sterling remains strong against major currencies, with GBP\/USD above 1.3650 ahead of the Bank of England’s policy meeting. This strength is a direct result of the stubborn inflation we saw persist through 2025, forcing the BoE to maintain a more hawkish stance than the US Federal Reserve. Traders should consider buying call options on the pound to capture potential upside from a hawkish statement while defining their risk.<\/p>\n
Gold’s position above $4,800 reflects a prolonged period of US dollar weakness and inflationary pressures. This trend was underpinned by the record levels of gold buying by central banks that we witnessed back in 2023 and 2024, signaling a move away from the dollar. With upside now looking limited as geopolitical tensions fade, it may be time to protect gains by writing covered calls or buying puts.<\/p>\n
The Euro is also showing strength as EUR\/USD pushes past 1.1800. This rally is largely driven by the eroding interest rate advantage the US dollar held over the euro throughout 2024 and 2025. We could use bull call spreads on the currency pair to ride this upward momentum with a defined risk profile.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan\u2019s monetary base improves; gold steadies above $4,800; Zilliqa rallies 20% before Cancun EVM upgrade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":17021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}