Key Points:
US jobless claims better than expected
Risk remains soft with all major US indices lower
USD mixed, DXY remains around 93.00
Once again stocks dominated markets with all major indices in the red, the Nasdaq for the 3rd time in four days. Some profit taking was also seen in Dow Jones which couldn’t benefit from the flight from tech and closed down just over 1%. The commodity currencies fared worse against the USD with NZD once again poking above 0.6900 yesterday slipping back below the 100HMA to 0.6835 along with AUD which has now broken the recent key support at 0.7250. USD/CAD is now back at 1.3150, some 200 pips higher on the week with a weaker WTI impacting slightly and Gold remained stuck in a $20 range between 1862/1882. EUR was one of the best performers with no real catalyst pushing back from 1.1765 to 1.1820 but Cable suffered again due to Covid and the Brexit saga. EUR/GBP now up almost 2% from the lows earlier in the week. US data showed a further improvement with jobless claims 20K less than expected but inflation missed expectations. Unlikely to stir the Fed into any action as once again Powell reiterated that Congress will need to do more on the fiscal side, just as the White House announced that they are pulling away from any stimulus talks. Trump’s followers continue to challenge the election outcome with speculation that there will be some news released next week to back their stance, while some Republican senators are now being more vocal in accepting Biden as President elect. Alarming news from France that they have a hospital admission every 30 seconds due to Covid doesn’t bode well for the short term even if there is much talk of a vaccine. UK also recorded its worst one day case count and the US continues to add cases just short of 150K per day. Last week it was less than 100K a day so it’s completely spiralling out of control now. Another quiet data day for Asia with European GDP and later US Michigan consumer sentiment data to round off the week. We will also hear further from the BoE. Risk remains on the backfoot.