The U.S. dollar is a touch stronger to start the year after falling significantly to end 2019. The dollar lost the previous four sessions.
Overview
This morning’s economic docket showed that weekly jobless claims fell by 2K last week, reaching a four-week low to close out the year. Later, Markit US manufacturing PMI is set to cross the wire. Tomorrow’s ISM manufacturing data is the largest risk event left on the shortened week’s economic calendar. Non-farm payrolls will be released next Friday, not tomorrow even though it’s the first Friday of the month.
We will get this year’s first dose of Fed speakers tomorrow afternoon and the FOMC will release the minutes of their last meeting tomorrow at 2 p.m. We expect to see a fairly unified Fed as the central bank has made it clear they intend to sit on their hands over the coming months.
What to Watch Today…
- Markit Manufacturing PMI at 9:45 a.m.
Complete Economic Calendar can be found here.
CAD
The Canadian dollar was mostly unchanged overnight. The loonie was the best performing G10 currency against the greenback in 2019, which was forecast by Monex. Monex was named the number one USD/CAD forecaster by Bloomberg for Q4 of 2019. Overall the Canadian dollar gained 4.5% versus the U.S. dollar last year.
GBP
The British pound fell from recent highs to start the year. The sterling rallied the last two weeks of the year on optimism towards Brexit. But real challenges remain, namely that the U.K. has just under a year to secure a trade deal with the EU. The Brexit odyssey is far from over.
