The strongest of the major currencies is the JPY as it benefits from the flight into the “relative safety of the JPY”
The weakest- of the majors – is the USD which is finding sellers as global concerns (Russia, emerging countries, stock market falls) has traders jumping on the idea that the Fed is on hold now. The good news for traders is we will find about what the Fed thinks tomorrow. The bad thing for the Fed is that they will have to figure out what to say and communicate.
A snapshot of the major currency pairs changes vs each other.
Things could be worse. The drop in the Russian Ruble is 15% give or take 2% at any one moment after their central bank raised rates to 17% at 1 AM Russian time. The sneak attack did not work and there is a huge flight out of the RUB today (see the hourly chart below).
USDRUB surges
Money is flowing into the bonds. The US 10 year bond is down to 2.05% from 2.30% on December 5th. The German Bund is down from 0.78% to 0.58%. Stocks are falling again. The European markets are showing declines. The Euro Stoxx index is down 1.7%. The US pre-market indices area showing weakness as well.
A snapshot of interest rates and stock markets
Oil prices are down
Oil is continuing to fall sharply.
Today, the US housing starts and building permits will be released at 8:30 AM with the estimate for 1040K and 1065K respectively (last month 1009K and 1092K). In Canda, Int’l Securities Transactions 4B and Manufacturing Sales (-0.3% est) are expected).
Trends in US housing starts and building permits