There’s some mixed undertones playing out in European morning trade so far, as we’re probably seeing markets settling in after the Easter break. The dollar is trading a little lower (except against the yen and franc) even as bond yields are inching higher.EUR/USD is up 0.2% to trade back above 1.0800 but still faces near-term resistance closer to 1.0823 from its 100-hour moving average. GBP/USD is also still flirting with daily support at 1.3000, trading up to 1.3030 currently from a low of 1.2990 earlier.USD/JPY remains the notable exception with the yen dropping like a fly across the board. The pair trades up 1.1% to 128.30 levels at the moment.Elsewhere, European stocks are still being pressured lower by nearly 1% across the board. And US futures have erased earlier gains with S&P 500 futures trading down 0.1% currently.

Here’s a look at Treasury yields on the day: 2-year yields +1.7 bps to 2.477% 5-year yields +2.7 bps to 2.823% 10-year yields +3.5 bps to 2.897% 30-year yields +3.5 bps to 2.987% The levels are the highs for the day as the bond selling looks to resume. In turn, that is pinning USD/JPY higher with the pair now up 145 pips to 128.42. In general, the yen is dragged down across the board with AUD/JPY also trading up to its highest since July 2015, closing in on the 95.00 level. Again, I’d like to point out this chart when it comes to the bond market: 10-year Treasury yields are looking to break key resistance in the form of the 200-month moving average (blue line) as well as the channel range that has been persisting for more than two decades now.

Gold is usually
investors’ go-to asset when economic challenges or global issues disrupt the
markets. With surging prices and the markets
facing uncertainty, some investors seek a safe investment with a history of
excellent gains, such as gold.

 

So if you plan to own
gold, you don’t need to use your own closet for that. Instead, what you need to
store your gold is an investment account.

 

What You Need to Know
About Investing in Gold

 

Gold can’t offer you
the means to significant profit. Looking at the last five years, gold prices
have climbed about 36%, while the S&P 500 has gained 104% in the same
period.

 

The hype surrounding
gold is not due to its potential for returns. Rather, it’s because of the
yellow metal’s ability to serve as a safe haven from inflation and severe
market declines. For example, the US 2007-2008 bear market saw the general
stock market fall 33%, while gold only recorded a 2% loss.

 

Still, gold prices have
a volatile nature, making gold an investment that is not 100% safe. You can
even build a well-diversified portfolio without gold. However, if you seek to
put some of your money into gold, do it in a way that it only covers a small
percentage of your investments.    

 

3 Ways to Own Physical
Gold

 

Bullion/Bars

 

Better known as
bullion, gold bars are an excellent option if you intend to invest in gold.
Investors can buy bullion per gram or ounce, and the bar’s purity,
manufacturer, and weight should be indicated on its top face.

 

Purity, in particular,
is crucial to gold, as investment-grade gold bars need to be at least 99.5%
pure. That becomes more important if you’re looking to keep your bullion in a
gold individual retirement account (IRA). Bars with lower gold content cannot
be stored in an IRA, except for a pre-approved gold coin.

 

Bullion is available to
purchase from dealers, individual sellers, or online. Note that there may be
delivery charges and insurance fees involved to ensure the safe transport of
your gold bars.

 

Coins

 

Collector’s item gold
coins such as the American Eagles and Maple Leafs will require you to pay a
premium over what you would pay for the same number of gold bars you’re
holding.

 

Additionally, gold
coins usually have less purity than bullion and are sold by dealers, pawnshops,
and reliable individual sellers.

 

If you decide to buy
gold coins online, make sure it’s an authorized dealer included in the US
Mint’s list. You would not want to pay for fakes or gold with a lower content
than what you were told, regardless of whether you plan to purchase gold coins
directly or online.

 

Jewelry

 

Gold jewelry,
especially the antique ones with higher purity, offers investors another way to
invest in the precious yellow metal. However, like gold coins, you may need to
pay additional fees for the amount of gold you’re actually buying, depending on
the producer.

 

Furthermore,
manufacturers tend to mix gold with other metals – i.e., alloying – to make
their jewelry last longer or adjust their colors.

 

You also need to confirm
whether the individual you’re purchasing gold jewelry from is legit. For
example, jewelers part of the Jewelers of America is bound by a code of conduct
that requires them to practice honesty and
transparency on the makeup of their jewelry.

 

Lastly, if you’re
looking to resell your gold, you need to gather as much certification as
possible to prove its quality.

Cryptocurrency can be a
risky investment, whichever way you slice it. Therefore, the decision to put
money into this digital asset is something that investors need to consider carefully.

 

Sure there is potential
to turn a profit with cryptos, but not everyone is fit to hold them. Hence, the
question. Are you fit to invest in cryptocurrencies, or you’re better off
choosing other investments?

 

To help you decide,
here are four signs that you may not be cut out for investing in cryptocurrency.

 

1.    You Look to Make Money
Fast

 

Buying cryptocurrencies
that are making a bullish run and selling them immediately is not exactly an
excellent plan, as your odds of losing with this strategy are pretty high.

Short-term trading
could put you in a difficult situation since it’s hard to be spot-on with the
time you’re making a buy, and you won’t always be aware that an asset is rising
until its price is already at or close to its highest.

 

Investors with
long-term investment horizons often do better than short-term investors in the
markets because they don’t need to worry about timing their purchases.

 

Therefore, if you don’t
plan to hold on to your crypto investments for a very long time, you’re
probably better off finding other investment options.  

 

2.   
Low-Risk Tolerance

 

It’s worth thinking
twice about investing in cryptocurrencies if you’d rather focus on capital
preservation than growth, and there’s a possibility that you would sell at the
first sign of weakness in your crypto holdings.

 

If you’re a risk-averse
investor, you may panic sell at unideal times, leaving you with losses that you
could have regained if you stayed invested during that brief price drop. That
is exactly why investors with a low tolerance for risks need to keep volatile
assets like cryptocurrencies out of their portfolios.

 

3.   
Crypto Choices are Influenced by Celebrities or Social
Media

 

Your crypto purchases
should not be based entirely on celebrity recommendations or social media posts
because if that’s the case, you could make a costly mistake.

 

It’s pretty hard to
always believe in the advice you hear or read from social media influencers or
finfluencers since not all of them are qualified experts in the financial
field.

Moreover, some could
only be recommending a particular cryptocurrency for promotional purposes or
their own personal gain. Even those with good reasons may not have the same
investing goals as you.

 

So unless you know how
to look into cryptocurrencies properly to analyze their long-term potential and
risks, investing in cryptos may not yet be a wise move to make.

 

4.   
Portfolio Needs More Conventional Assets

 

It’s better to invest
in cryptocurrencies only if you can afford to lose them and have all your
finances in order.

 

Cryptocurrencies can be
very risky due to their highly volatile and speculative nature. Therefore,
before you include cryptos in your investment portfolio, it’s better to fill it
with more conventional assets like stocks and bonds.

 

That way, you have
assets that would keep you on stable grounds during uncertain times and provide
you with decent returns, helping you build wealth in the long run, even if your
cryptocurrency holdings
don’t work out well.

Non-fungible tokens
(NFTs) are transforming how people collect and own
items online. By the end of last year, this digital asset grew notably
popular that the NFT market’s worth reached around $40 billion.

 

If you’re planning to
make your first NFT purchase, there are a few essential things that you need to
take care of.   

 

Research

 

Research is always
vital when you’re considering investing in a new asset. Whether it’s shares in
a company, an artwork, cryptocurrency, or NFT, research helps you grasp
important aspects of a potential investment.

 

With NFTs, you need to
look into several aspects, including:

·      Gas and other
transaction fees

·      The blockchain that
mints the NFT

·      Valuation

·      Authenticity and fraud
risks

·      Carbon cost

 

A Solid Reason

 

NFTs are digital proof
of ownership of a number of tangible and intangible products, from art to music
to sports collectibles to in-game items. With the broad range of things you can
buy as an NFT, it’s crucial that you determine the NFT you’re buying and the
reason for purchasing it.

 

If you decided to own
an NFT just because most investors are buying or talking about it, you might
need more reasons than that. Otherwise, you could end up following the crowd
all the time without a good idea about the NFT and a clear reason why you’re
buying it in the first place.

 

If you’re going to
purchase an NFT, make sure you’re buying based on your personal interests and
have considered the key differences that make every NFT sector unique. For
example, an art collector has different needs from a basketball fan looking to
own an NFT of one of the greatest sporting moments.

 

A Digital Wallet

 

You need an NFT wallet
to pay for and store your digital coins. You can start with a software wallet,
but if you end up buying NFTs regularly, a hardware wallet that protects your
NFTs offline may be ideal. You can also find many useful information online to
help you get started on creating a wallet.

 

Once you’ve set up your
account, you’ll receive some type of master password called the seed phrase,
which you need to keep somewhere safe as this would allow you to access your
NFTs if you lost or don’t remember your password.

 

Note that the NFT
wallet should work properly with the trading platform and blockchain network
you will be using. You also need to check whether the two-factor authentication
is available.

 

Platform and Blockchain
Network

 

Many NFT marketplaces
allow individuals to browse, create, and buy and sell NFTs. But you need to
focus on finding a platform that trades the NFTs you plan to own.

 

You should also see
what blockchain network that platform is using. The Ethereum blockchain
supports a significant number of NFTs and is the most common out there,
although Solana and Tezos have also entered the NFT venture.

 

Choosing the blockchain
matters because buying NFTs with fiat currencies like US dollars can be pretty
tricky. So while you need to have cryptocurrency, it needs to be the correct
cryptocurrency.

 

Considering the risk of
fraud in NFTs, several platforms have implemented measures to ensure the NFT is genuine. No investor would want to
purchase an NFT only to find out that it was not authentic, and the original
creator does not even know that his work has been made as an NFT.

Bitcoin declined by
5.7%, ending the week at around $40,300. Ethereum lost 6.6%, while other
leading altcoins in the top 10 fell from 2.9% (Binance Coin) to 17% (Terra).
The exception was XRP (+0.8%). Monday began with a further 3.3% drawdown in
bitcoin to $38.9K, which had fallen below its support line since January.

The signal for a
break of the mild upward trend would be a consolidation below the $38K levels.
If the bulls capitulate, the first cryptocurrency could be pushed into the
$32-35K range without much resistance. A consolidation scenario below $30K
would require an absolute disaster in the financial markets. We have seen
steady and impressive demand from long-term buyers as we have fallen into this
area.

 

The total capitalisation of the crypto market,
according to CoinMarketCap, fell by 7.3% over the week to $1.81 trillion. The
Bitcoin Dominance Index fell by 0.5% to 40.75% over the same period. The
cryptocurrency fear and greed index lost 4 points to 24 by Monday, returning to
“extreme fear” territory after two days of consolidation in “fear”. Bitcoin
declined for the second week in a row under negative stock market performance.

 

Last week’s
noticeable decline in BTC on Monday

 

Executives of the
world’s largest crypto exchanges told CNBC that they have recently noticed
signs of a “crypto thaw” regarding governments’ changing attitude towards
cryptocurrencies. Portugal’s central bank has granted the country’s first
crypto-asset license to a bank. Bison Bank became the first bank in Portugal to
offer large customers cryptocurrency storage and trading services. Cardano
founder Hoskinson suggested that Musk join forces to create a decentralised
social network if Twitter does not come under the Tesla founder’s control.

 

Vlad Tenev,
Robinhood’s CEO, said DOGE would become the most used cryptocurrency for
Internet payments. However, to do so, developers must improve transaction
processing speed.

This article was written by FxPro’s Senior Market
Analyst Alex Kuptsikevich.

It is Easter Monday so there isn’t much interest in the market for any action today, as evident by the lack of meaningful expiries rolling off on the day. We’ll only really get back into the thick of things tomorrow.But one thing to note is that there is still a lack of significant expiries for USD/JPY above 125.00 through to 130.00 at this stage. That may offer some additional license to roam for the pair as it threatens a further upside leg.For more information on how to use this data, you may refer to this post here.

Next week is a hodgepodge of economic releases and events. Central bank members from around the globe will be speaking.  In the US, existing home sales, Philly Fed manufacturing index, flash PMI data will be released:Monday, April 18.  The Easter Monday holiday will close most of Europe including Switzerland, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and CanadaChina GDP, 10 PM ET.  Estimate 4.2% versus 4.0% Q/YChina retail sales YoY.  10 PM ET. Estimate -3% versus +6.7%RBNZ Gov. Orr speaks at 4 PM ET/0500 GMT. The RBNZ raise rates by 50 basis points at their meeting last weekFeds Bullard (hawk and voting member) speaks also at 4 PM ETTuesday, April 19:Australia’s monetary policy meeting minutes.  9:30 PM ETUS housing starts, 8:30 AM ET. Estimate 1.74 million versus 1.77 million last monthSNB’s Chairman Jordan speaks at 12:30 PM ETWednesday, April 20Canada CPI. 8:30 AM ET. Estimate 0.9%. US existing home sales. 10 AM ET. Estimate 5.78 million versus 6.02 million last monthUS beige book. 2 PM ETThursday, April 21New Zealand CPI quarter on quarter. 6:45 PM ET. Estimate 2.0% versus 1.4% last quarterEU final CPI YoY.  5 AM ET.  Estimate 7.5%.  Core CPI 3.0%US Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index.  8:30 AM ET.  Estimate 20.6 versus 27.4 last monthUS unemployment claims.  8:30 AM ET.  Estimate 190K versus 185K last weekBOE Gov. Bailey speaks at 12:30 PM ETECB Pres. Lagarde speaks at 1 PM ETFed’s Powell speaks at 1 PM ETFriday, April 22Australia flash manufacturing and services PMI. 7 PM ETJapan flash manufacturing PMI. 8:30 PM ETUK retail sales. 2 AM ET. Estimate -0.3% versus -0.3% last monthGermany flash manufacturing PMI. 3:30 AM ET. Estimate 54.6 versus 56.9 last monthEU flash manufacturing PMI. 4 AM ET. Estimate 54.9 versus 56.5. Services PMI 55.0 versus 55.6 last monthUK flash manufacturing PMI. 4:30 AM ET. Estimate 54.3 versus 55.2Canada retail sales 8:30 AM ET. Estimate -0.5% versus 3.2% last month. Core retail sales 0.2% versus 2.5% last monthUS flash manufacturing PMI. 9:45 AM ET estimate 58.1 versus 58.8 last month. Services PMI flash estimate 58.0 versus 58.0 last month

The earnings calendar will swing into another gear next week after financials dominated the first week.  There will be more from the financial sector along with the likes of IBM, Lockheed Martin, Netflix, United Air, and AT&T.Below is the expected schedule of some of the major releases:Monday , April 18Bank of AmericaCharles SchwabIntuitive SurgicalTuesday , April 19IBMInteractive Brokers GroupLockheed MartinHalliburtonNetflixJohnson & JohnsonWednesday , April 20AlcoaUnited AirlinesProcter & GambleCarvanaThursday, April 21AT&TBlackstoneFreeport McMoRanPhilip MorrisFriday, April 22American ExpressVerizonKimberly-ClarkSchlumberger 

Macron is seen winning France’s presidential election runoff with 56% of the vote versus Le Pen. The participation rate is expected at 71% for the second rounded France’s presidential election. This according to IPSOS-Sopra Steria.