Headlines:
- Cable travels to near three-month highs as dollar struggles
- BOE's Bailey: It is too soon to discuss about cutting interest rates
- BOJ governor Ueda: Cannot say with conviction that inflation will hit 2% sustainably
- PBOC says prudent monetary policy will be forceful and precise
- China president Xi set for first visit to Shanghai in two years
- Beijing Stock Exchange reportedly calls for 'major shareholders' to refrain from selling
- UK November retailing reported sales -11 vs -36 prior
- SNB total sight deposits w.e. 24 November CHF 473.7 bn vs CHF 476.9 bn prior
Markets:
- NZD leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.1%
- US 10-year yields down 1.6 bps to 4.468%
- Gold up 0.5% to $2,012.43
- WTI crude down 1.2% to $74.65
- Bitcoin down 2.4% to $36,938
The session started off slowly with a more mixed picture in markets and also for the dollar. But as we gradually got closer to US trading, we're seeing the greenback tail off to lag behind the rest of the major currencies bloc.
USD/JPY continues to fluctuate in and around the 149.00 mark, sitting just under that for now, down 0.4% to 148.90. Meanwhile, GBP/USD is inching slightly higher to 1.2630 levels - its highest since early September.
And we are also seeing the antipodeans take advantage, with both AUD/USD and NZD/USD looking to break key resistance levels with the former up 0.3% to 0.6605 while the latter is up 0.4% to 0.6095 currently.
This comes as Treasury yields are down slightly but also as equities are looking more tepid. Stocks have been on a roll, posting four straight weeks of gains but are now seen taking a bit of a breather to start the new week.
In the commodities space, oil continues to be pressured amid the whole OPEC+ fiasco while gold is looking for a stronger break above the $2,000 mark once more as seen here.