Daily Market Update

Overview

Friday afternoon saw a bit of a retracement for the Buck after a very strong showing through the rest of the week, but the Dollar’s winning ways are continuing today. Early Saturday morning President Joe Biden signed a stopgap funding bill into law to keep the government funded through the middle of March, giving the Buck a boost after fears of a government shutdown were averted at the last second. The US did release durable goods orders for the month of November this morning, though FX markets have largely shrugged off the figures. Durable goods orders shrank by 1.1% last month, quite a bit more negative than expected, but the ‘core’ figure excluding transportation only contracted by 0.1%. The prior month of October did show an upward revision as well, keeping any movement for the Dollar off such a release muted.

CHF, GBP, and JPY are notable underperformers this morning in the face of broad Dollar strength, but with no major data due to be released during this short week it’s likely that FX volume will remain thin and pricing could be volatile as a result of this. Safe haven currencies as a whole are underperforming today even in the face of bleak economic releases from many major economies last week as the Dollar’s run of strength in the last quarter of this year is proving too much to overcome. The UK also released GDP for Q3, showing that in the first quarter of the new Labour administration the economy failed to grow at all. The year-over-year reading also came in slightly under expectations. Canada’s GDP, by contrast, grew more than expected – welcome news for the Canadian government that has been plagued by spectres of underperformance for the last several quarters – but the Loonie has failed to respond.

The data calendar is bare the rest of this week and through most of next week as well as holidays punctuate trading sessions around the world. Monex USA will close at 3PM Eastern tomorrow, Christmas Eve, and will be closed Christmas Day.

What to Watch This Week…