Forex news from the European trading session - 22 December 2020
Headlines:
- Brexit: Johnson, von der Leyen reportedly held talks yesterday to try and reach fisheries compromise
- Brexit: Barnier to brief EU ambassadors on state of talks later today at 1500 GMT
- Brexit: How are things with fisheries looking like now?
- UK Q3 final GDP +16.0% vs +15.5% q/q prelim
- Germany January GfK consumer confidence -7.3 vs -7.6 expected
- UK, France reportedly set out plan to restart freight
- Germany reports 19,528 new coronavirus cases in latest update today
Markets:
- CHF leads, NZD lags on the day
- European equities higher; E-minis up 0.2%
- US 10-year yields down 0.3 bps to 0.931%
- Gold down 0.1% to $1,875
- WTI down 0.9% to $47.50
- Bitcoin up 0.2% to $23,200
After a bit of a panicky start to the new week yesterday, holiday trading is finally kicking into gear now as the year winds down.
The dollar was a little firmer earlier in the day but nothing as promising as yesterday, before giving most of that back as we approach North American trading.
Risk kept steadier throughout, with European equities rebounding from yesterday's slump while US futures are holding slightly higher after the comeback yesterday.
Of note, Congress has approved a near $900 billion virus relief bill which is now just waiting on Trump to sign off to turn into law.
A couple of Brexit headlines, or should I say a rehash of them, prompted some light and exacerbated moves in the pound during the session but nothing too alarming.
Cable fell from 1.3440 to 1.3362 before rebounding back in between its key hourly moving averages around 1.3410-50 with nothing new to work with on the Brexit front.
