Headlines:
- Dollar holds slightly higher in thin trading
- PBOC announces RRR cut by 25 bps
- PBOC reportedly to offer cheap loans to support developers' bonds
- ECB's Lane: Wages will be the primary driver of inflation over the coming years
- Germany Q3 final GDP +0.4% vs +0.3% q/q prelim
- Germany December GfK consumer sentiment -40.2 vs -39.6 expected
- France November consumer confidence 83 vs 83 expected
Markets:
- USD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities little changed; S&P 500 futures up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields up 0.4 bps to 3.712%
- Gold down 0.2% to $1,750.21
- WTI crude up 2.3% to $79.71
- Bitcoin down 0.1% to $16,521
Markets are facing a bit of a Thanksgiving hangover in thin trading but the dollar is finding itself in a decent spot, posting a slight advance on the session.
There wasn't much to work with as equities remain fairly tentative, though we did see bond yields pull higher after the drop from yesterday. Treasury yields were down 5 bps early on but have moved up to flat levels on the day now. 10-year German bund yields are up another 9 bps to 1.937% with the yield curve seeing its deepest inversion since 1992 this week.
USD/JPY was a notable mover as it pulled higher from 138.50 to 139.50, bouncing off daily resistance around 138.45 for now. Meanwhile, EUR/USD is keeping just above its 200-day moving average of 1.0386 as the pair trades around 1.0390-10 during the session.
Other major currencies saw light action against the dollar as well, though the aussie and kiwi are down slightly against the greenback. AUD/USD is down 0.3% to 0.6740 as price keeps below its 61.8 Fib retracement level at 0.6767 while NZD/USD is down 0.4% to 0.6240 but that just takes away slightly from the advance in the past two days.
All in all, thin markets is making for some light moves before the weekend as traders will have to look to next week and month-end trading to firm up any convictions.
