Daily Market Update

Currency Markets Maintain Holiday Sluggishness

December 27, 2018

The U.S. dollar remains in relatively tight, familiar ranges as traders come back from the Christmas holiday. Canada, the U.K. and much of Europe remained closed yesterday.

Overview

U.S. equities took huge tumble on December 24th before staging an extraordinary rally during yesterday’s session. Still, major indexes are poised for their worst December since 1931. Futures show that equity markets will give back a big chunk of yesterday’s gains at the open. Despite heightened volatility in equity markets, currency trading remains subdued.

The dollar was a bit stronger yesterday after the White House said that Federal Reserve Chairman Powell’s job was “a hundred percent” safe. There is some disagreement over whether the President has the power to remove a Fed chairman.

This morning’s economic docket is nothing to write home about. Weekly jobless claims came in right as expected. Pending homes are on tomorrow’s docket.

 

What to Watch Today…

  • No major events scheduled for today.

The complete economic calendar can be found here.

 

EUR

EUR/USD is in sleep ranges while moving in small, 20 pip ebb and flows. There is no major economic data slated for release today. The European Central bank released an economic bulletin that was met with a proverbial shoulder shrug by traders. The ECB held that they do see continued economic growth but that there are an increasing number of downside risks. The central bank pointed to geopolitical factors such as protectionism as a possible headwind moving into next year.

JPY

Sleepy trading conditions may be widespread in currency markets this week but that has not applied to USD/JPY. The traditional safe-haven currency has followed the stock market’s wild swings in recent days. The yen weakened significantly during yesterday’s session (1.0%) before staging a half a percent comeback overnight.

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