{"id":149853,"date":"2019-06-18T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T14:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/?p=149853"},"modified":"2019-06-18T09:15:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T13:15:38","slug":"the-us-sends-a-further-1000-troops-to-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2019\/06\/the-us-sends-a-further-1000-troops-to-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Sends A Further 1000 Troops To Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"
June 18, 2019<\/div>
\r\n<\/div><\/div>

By <\/strong>Orbex<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US Reacts to \u201cHostile Behaviour\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Risk sentiment has been a little softer so far this week as rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have taken the shine off the recent rally.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US announced that it will send a further 1000 troops to the Middle East. This is in light of the growing stand-off with Iran. Acting US Defence secretary Patrick Shanahan said that the move was in direct response to \u201chostile behavior\u201d by Iran.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Shanahan said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent Iranian attacks validate the reliable, credible intelligence we have received on\u00a0hostile\u00a0<\/strong>behavior\u00a0by Iranian forces<\/strong>\u00a0and their proxy groups that threaten United States personnel and interests across the region\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Saudi Oil Tanker Attacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The US accused Iran of being responsible for attacks on Saudi Arabian oil tankers over the last week.\u00a0<\/strong>The attacks saw two tankers being set on fire via a missile device. While Tehran has officially denied the attacks, the US has released footage of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded mine from one of the oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

This attack comes only a month after four Saudi Arabian oil tankers reported being attacked.<\/strong>\u00a0The US responded at the time by deploying warships to the Middle East.<\/p>

\r\n
\r\n

Free Reports:<\/p><\/div>\r\n

\r\n

<\/a>\r\n\t Get Our Free Metatrader 4 Indicators<\/u><\/b><\/a> - Put Our Free MetaTrader 4 Custom Indicators on your charts when you join our Weekly Newsletter<\/p>

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

<\/a>\r\n\t Get our Weekly Commitment of Traders Reports<\/u><\/b><\/a> - See where the biggest traders (Hedge Funds and Commercial Hedgers) are positioned in the futures markets on a weekly basis.<\/p>

\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n
<\/div>\n

The US has now backed up this effort by deploying 1000 troops which have been authorized to \u201caddress air, naval, and ground-based threats in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the statement was keen to stress that the \u201cUnited States does not seek conflict with Iran.\u201d It went on to state that it only wishes to \u00a0\u201censure the safety and welfare of [\u2026] military personnel working throughout the region to protect [\u2026] national interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nuclear Deal Breaks Down<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tensions between the US and Iran have been growing worse following the breakdown of the 2015 nuclear deal.\u00a0Iran recently announced that as of June 27th<\/sup>, it will breach the limits on its stockpile of enriched uranium as set by the 2015 agreement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A statement from the country\u2019s atomic agency said that Iran has now quadrupled its production of nuclear material. However, it did say there was\u00a0\u201cstill time\u201d for Iran to scale operations back. This is under the condition that European countries act to protect Iran<\/strong>\u00a0from the recently reinstated\u00a0US sanctions<\/a>\u00a0which have banned the sale of Iranian oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear Extortion\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A US spokeswoman for the state department told reporters:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pattern of 40 years of behavior, it\u2019s consistent with how the Iranian regime behaves\u2026\u00a0We would say to the international community that we should not yield to nuclear extortion by the Iranian regime.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the US continues to reaffirm that it does not want a war with Iran, the situation is becoming incredibly hostile. With extra US troops in the area, unless aggression linked to Iranian forces stops, a conflict on the ground looks likely.<\/p>\n

Oil Market Not Bothered Yet<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Surprisingly,\u00a0oil traders appear to be downplaying the situation for now.\u00a0<\/strong>Crude prices continue to hover near recent lows.\u00a0The market focus,\u00a0for now, it seems, is on soaring\u00a0US crude production<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>This\u00a0once again recently broke out to fresh record highs and shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

Technical Perspective<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The recent sell-off in oil has seen prices cascading all the way down to the 61.8% retracement from last year\u2019s lows, which has held as support for now.<\/p>\n

However, the tone remains heavy. Should we break down below this level, the next key support is down at the 47.49 level where we have the 78.6% retracement as well as some structural support. To the topside, the retest of the broken 50% level has held as resistance for now. The 57.16 level is the next key zone to watch above there.<\/p>\n

By <\/strong>Orbex<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Orbex US Reacts to \u201cHostile Behaviour\u201d Risk sentiment has been a little softer so far this week as rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have taken the shine off the recent rally. The US announced that it will send a further 1000 troops to the Middle East. This is in light of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149858,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149853\/revisions\/149858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}