As crypto prices continue to fall, the news coming in from the industry is still resoundingly good.

Positive developments on the ground are being announced at a rapid rate. The most intriguing IMHO of which has come from Microsoft.

Without getting too technical, this new enterprise-ready product is about to make it a whole lot easier for organizations and corporations to build decentralized applications in a comfortable environment.

Perhaps the best part is that this not only signals that Microsoft who, after their recent purchase of Github, is now the main powerhouse for new technological developments is increasing their blockchain compatibility, but that they're doing this directly on the Ethereum network. 

In the meantime, Ether is trading at it's lowest prices of the year. Hot diggity!

Today's Highlights

• Rub US the Wrong Way
• Kiwi Clipped
• Oil Grouchy Too

Traditional Markets

Another day, another market moving headline from the US President. This one seemingly harsher on Russia than Trump is used to

Even though Putin's people have denied the allegations, US intelligence has concluded that it was indeed the Russian government behind the nerve-agent attack in the UK, prompting a response that could very well escalate over the next few months.

The Ruble has opened up this morning on the wrong side of the 65 handle. Here we can see the USDRUB over the last few years. 2017 was remarkably stable but the RUB does seem to be losing ground so far this year.

(Note: The chart shows USD strength, so an upward movement indicates a weaker Ruble)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Kiwi doing the opposite of flying

The New Zealand Dollar (aka: the Kiwi) took a hit last night due to some rather dovish manoeuvring by her handlers.

Even though the economy is doing quite well, the Royal Bank of New Zealand has opted not to follow in the footsteps of its US counterpart saying that...

In other words, the markets were hoping the RBNZ would signal a rate hike in 2019 but instead they got a bucket of ice. Hopes of a 2020 hike didn't do much to alleviate the shock.

(Note: in this NZDUSD chart the NZD is mentioned first so down means down.)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Watch out also for the GBP GDP announcement tomorrow morning, which will be released before our daily market update.

Oil Slides Some More

The price of crude oil also took a hit yesterday. It seems there's a plethora of sticky geopolitical and trade/sanction related news driving it at the moment.

Updates from China, Russia, and Iran, as well as supply and demand data have been pulling it every which way, but predominantly down.

This chart is also slightly difficult. We spoke about a break below (purple circle) the picture perfect support (white) line in early June. Since then, it seems to have created a new support (yellow) line not too far below the first.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Yesterday it seems to have broken below the yellow secondary support line, but only after the first break, so I'm really not sure how much we can read into this.

Not Just Crypto

So you see my friends, it's not just cryptos that are showing risk-off sentiment these days. That sentiment might sometimes be driven by breaking news and sometimes by the charts but always by buyers and sellers coming together to agree on a price.