Good Morning,
Market Headlines
A late bounce on Wall St saw it close the last day of 2020 in the black with the Dow and S&P up around 0.7% while the Nasdaq closed only marginally higher. US weekly jobless claims data was better than expected with initial claims falling to 787k to beat expectations of 835k while continuing claims fell to 5.219 mio to beat expectations of 5.390 mio. Commodities, Crude +0.1%, Copper -0.1%, Iron ore +1.1% Gold $1899/oz.
Currency
AUD/USD: 0.7690 – 0.7743
EUR/USD: 1.2210 – 1.2304
GBP/USD: 1.3527 – 1.3686
USD/JPY: 103.00 – 103.31
USD/CAD: 1.2714 – 1.2769
NZD/USD: 0.7183 – 0.7241
AUD/JPY: 79.29 – 79.78
AUD/NZD: 1.0669 –1.0721
AUD Thoughts
AUD however remaining buoyant into year-end after managing 0.7743 highs (and closing the year at 0.7700 ). US data releases likely to be the focus this week with US Payrolls data being the highlight on Friday, markets will also keeping an eye on the political wrangling over the approval and size of government Covid-relief payments to the public.
Look for bids to have accordingly been raised to the 0.7640/60 area, expectation is that further offers will be building from the last week high of 0.7740.
Event Risk Data Today
ES, IT, FR, DE, UK & EU – December Manufacturing PMI
US – December Markit Manufacturing PMI
US – November Construction Spending