The USD is stronger

As Brexit moves toward no-deal, the US Covid relief talk go back and forth toward and then away from a no-deal, jobless claim spike yesterday, Covid cases and deaths are rising (London may be forced to go to Tier 3), the wheel has spun and it has spit out the JPY and USD as the strongest on "safety trade", the GBP is the weakest because of all the uncertainty there. Heading into a weekend, and then coming out on Monday is anyone's guess, but the market is playing it fairly according to the "traditional" storyline. The good news is the Covid vaccination may begin as early as Monday in the US.

The USD is stronger

The ranges and changes are once again skewed heavily toward the GBP pairs (they are the spikes and that spike is even higher now as I type). All GBP pairs are making new pound low extremes (for EURGBP it is higher of course). The EURUSD, USDJPY, AUDUSD and NZDUSD are back toward unchanged levels with the dollar higher after being dollar lower earlier.

The ranges and changes for the major currency pairs

IN other markets:

  • Spot gold is trading down $1.12 or -0.06% $1835.40.
  • Spot silver is down $0.20 or -0.86% at $23.79.
  • WTI crude oil futures are trading unchanged on the day at $46.78

In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are lower (as per the futures)

  • Dow industrial average -175 points
  • S&P index , -27 points
  • NASDAQ index -85 points

In the European equity markets, major indices are sharply lower

  • German DAX, -1.5%
  • France's CAC, -0.8%
  • UK's FTSE 100, -0.7%
  • Spain's Ibex, -1.8%
  • Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.9%

In the US debt market, the yields are lower. The yield curve is flatter by about 1 basis point.

US yields are lower

In Europe, the benchmark 10 year yields are also trading lower:

European yields are lower