I hope everyone is well rested and recharged as we kick start the new year.

The simplest approach to things is usually to ignore all the moves during the Christmas to New Year's period and reassess based on the early market movements during the week. I don't see much reason to deviate from that this time.

The dollar is keeping steadier after a bit of a drop on Friday with EUR/USD clipping the 30 November high @ 1.1383 before slipping back into the more cagey price action territory in the past month.

Meanwhile, USD/CAD fell to test its 100-day moving average but bounced off that to 1.2680 now. Sellers are in near-term control so there will be a key technical battle to watch in the days ahead.

Looking elsewhere, gold is a notable one as price moved up to its highest in six weeks on Friday. Of note, buyers broke above short-term resistance around $1,815. However, that is on thin markets and we are seeing a light pullback now so the breakout is still yet to be confirmed for the time being. But keep above $1,815 and that will be encouraging at least.

Things may start off a bit slower amid a London holiday today but it should pick up during the week, not least with OPEC+, FOMC meeting minutes, and NFP still to come in the days ahead.

What are your views on the market right now? Share your thoughts/ideas with the ForexLive community here.