Forex news for North American trading on December 8, 2020
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- NASDAQ/S&P close at record highs
- Senate Dem Schumer: State and local aid have broad bipartisan support
- Texas election challenge formally docketed at Supreme Court
- WTI crude oil futures settle at $45.60
- McConnell speaking to reporters: Continue to work on Covid relief, spending bill
- US Covid cases come in at 186,215 vs. 174,387 yesterday
- Fox reports: Lindsey Graham hopes to have agreement on liability protections today
- US sells $56 billion of 3 year notes that high yield of 0.211%
- Swiss government: Covid situation worsening
- UK Minister Gove: We hope there will be movement on EU side of deal talks. GBP continues to waffle back and forthUSD
- EIA crude and petroleum forecasts released
- European major indices erase most of the earlier declines
- EUs Barnier: Told 27 European affairs ministers, no deal was now more likely
- Senator Schumer: Congress needs to pass Covid relief by the end of the year
- Sky Adam Parsons: Barnier says chances of a deal are now very slim. GBPUSD falls back toward lows.
- Brexit: Germany's Roth says there is no substantial progress
- US nonfarm productivity for 3Q (F) +4.6% vs. +4.9% estimate
- US productivity and unit labor cost for 3Q will be released at the bottom of the hour
- UK says deal on withdrawal committee JC
- The CHF is the strongest while the GBP is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day
The trading in "other pairs" outside of the GBP ones, can be characterized as dull today. The low to high trading ranges in the USD pairs outside of the GBPUSD were 58 pips or less. The USDJPY could only muster a range of 25 pips, the NZDUSD 30 pips, the EURUSD was only 38 pips. The USDCAD did wander up to a 58 pip trading range from a NY starting range of 41 pips, but it was a slow grind to new highs, and the pair was coming off the lowest level going back to May 2018. That's the best it could do? SMH.
The GBPUSD did extend to a new high in the North American session on headline news that the UK and EU had a deal on aspects of the Brexit deal. However, the run higher stalled just under the 100 hour MA (near 1.3396), and when other comments from EUs Barnier and Germany's Roth basically saying a Brexit deals chances were slim, the price rotated back lower. For the GBPUSD, the 100 and 200 hour MAs at 1.33749 and 1.33957 respectively remain topside resistance/risk defining levels into the new trading day. It would take a move above each to tilt the bias back to the upside tomorrow. Stay below and the sellers will hold onto control.
The CHF is ending the session as the strongest of the major currencies. The gains were nevertheless somewhat modest in that pair.
For the USD, the dollar gained the most vs the GBP (+0.22%) and lost the most ground vs the CHF (-0.18). The USDCHF did take out the low from yesterday and reached the lowest level since the week of January 25, 2015 (low reached 0.8881), before a modest bounce took the price to 0.8890. The absolute minimum for that pair in the new trading day if the buyers are to take more control, is to get above the 0.8900 level and then the 100 hour MA at 0.8911. Failure to accomplish that, and the trend sellers are still holding the strongest hand.
In other changes vs the USD today, the dollar rose 0.17% and 0.16% against the CAD and AUD and 0.11% vs the JPY. The change vs the EUR and the NZD were near unchanged.
In other markets today, the US stock indices continue to push higher. Both the S&P index and the NASDAQ index closed at record highs. The Dow made a new intraday, but could not close at a record. The small Russell 2000 also closed at record high. The final numbers are showing:
- S&P index, up 10.29 points or 0.28% at 3702.25
- NASDAQ index rose 62.827 points or 0.50% to 12582.73
- Dow rose 104.09 points or 0.35% to 30173.88
In the US debt market, yields were modestly changed, and mixed:
- 2 year 0.150%, +1 basis point
- 5 year 0.392%, +0.6 basis points
- 10 year 0.917%, -0.5 basis points
- 30 year 1.662%, -1.7 basis points
Fundamentally the only economic release was nonfarm productivity final which rose by 4.6% vs. 4.9% in the preliminary release.
