The Barclays share price has had a strong start of the year as investors price in higher interest rates this year. The BARC stock price is trading at 211p, which is about 20% above the lowest level in December last year.
Barclays and other FTSE 100 banks like Lloyds, Standard Chartered, and NatWest have started the year well. Most of them are trading at their highest levels in several months.
This performance is mostly because investors expect more shareholder returns this year because central banks have started to abandon their zero interest rate policies. For example, the Bank of England (BOE) started hiking interest rates in December. And analysts expect that the bank will continue with the tightening policy in a bid to deal with inflation.
The next key catalyst for the Barclays share price is the upcoming bank earnings from the United States. On Friday, banks like Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and JP Morgan will publish their results.
Barclays has a closer resemblance to some of these banks because it makes money from its retail operations and investment banking. Therefore, the results will provide more color about the performance of the bank. In general, analysts expect that the bank continued doing well in the fourth quarter.
Barclays share price forecast
The four-hour chart reveals that the Barclays share price has been in a strong bullish trend lately. And most importantly, the bank managed to move above the key resistance level at 204p, where it had found it difficult to move above.
The stock is above the 25-day and 50-day exponential moving averages (EMA) while oscillators like the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and MACD have risen. Therefore, the path of the least resistance for the stock is in the upside, with the next key level to watch being at 220p. On the flip side, a drop below 190p will invalidate this view.
