Forex news for North American trade on December 22, 2017:
- US November prelim durable goods orders +1.3% vs +2.0% expected
- US PCE Core MoM for November 0.1% vs 0.1% estimate. YoY Core 1.5% vs 1.5% est.
- Canada October monthly GDP 0.0% vs +0.2% expected
- Baker Hughes US oil rig count 747 vs 747 prior
- NY Fed Nowcast estimate for 4Q GDP at 3.9%
- The Atlanta Fed GDPNow falls back below 3%. Back at 2.8% for the current reading.
- KC Fed manufacturing index +14 vs +15 expected
- Andrew Left of Citron closes out a short Bitcoin trade that made a 60% profit in five days
- US November new home sales 733K vs 655K expected
- US Michigan consumer sentiment (Dec. Final) 95.9 vs. 97.2 estimate
Markets:
- Gold up $9 to $1275
- WTI crude up 6-cents to $58.43
- US 10-year yields down 0.1 bps to 2.48%
- S&P 500 down 1 point to 2683
- AUD leads, GBP lags
The FX market made a few moves on Friday. The biggest one was in USD/CAD as the pair raced higher on a soft GDP print only to slow fade back. The pair was at 1.2700 ahead of the news and then jumped to a session high of 1.2796 only to drift slowly back to 1.2724 at the close.
AUD/USD was pinned to 0.7700 by a $3.5 billion option expiry there . It managed to roll through the cut a few pips higher and there was no action afterwards with the pair briefly trying 0.772 only to slip back to 0.7710.
EUR/USD was solid into the London fix and dipped down to 1.1825 from 1.1850 but it recovered later to finish near a session high at 1.1860.
USD/JPY unwound some of the recent enthusiasm in a drift down to 133.30 from 113.40. It was a small move with the bond market basically sidelined now (and likely to stay that way through year end).
The big story was Bitcoin as it plunged as much as 25% down to $10,775. Circuit breakers were tripped in futures but the dip buyers picked it up from there along with the rest of the crypto space. In an impressive showing, it climbed back to $14239 -- that's a 23% climb from the lows but the fourth day of declines.
