Modest changes for the major currencies pre-data dump and US Thanksgiving Day holiday tomorrow

The NZD is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as NA trader enter for the day. The snapshot of the strongest to weakest has all the currencies relatively scrunched together with the AUDNZD change of 0.22% from the close being the biggest moving currency pair. The USD is near unchanged vs the EUR, JPY, CHF and NZD. The AUDUSD is up 0.2% and the USDCAD has a change of 0.14%. Not a lot of movement before the data dump today which includes weekly jobless claims, trade balance, wholesale inventories, GDP, durable goods, oil inventory, Michigan sentiment, Personal income and spending and Baker Hughes rig counts (oh.. the FOMC meeting minutes will also be released later this afternoon). Initial claims and Baker Hughes rig counts are being released on nontraditional days as tomorrow (and Friday for traders - although not officially) the US will be celebrating Thanksgiving. As result there is the shift in the releases this week (with claims a day early and Baker Hughes data 2-days early).

Modest changes for the major currencies pre-data dump and US Thanksgiving Day holiday tomorrow

The ho-hum nature the market can be seen in the ranges and changes charts below. The biggest mover is the USDCAD at up 18 pips. The AUDUSD is down -15 pips. The EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and NZDUSD are all within a single pip of unchanged on the day. The GBPUSD has the largest trading range at 80 pips from low to high. The other ranges for the major currency pairs are less than 48 pips and well below their 22 day averages.

The ranges and changes for the major currency pairs

In other markets:

  • Spot gold is trading up $5.60 or 0.31% at $1813.40. The precious metals is up for the 1st time after 2 sharp declines to the price back down toward the $1800 level yesterday dip buyers leaned against the natural support level.
  • Spot silver is trading up $0.15 or 0.64% $23.41
  • Bitcoin on the Coinbase exchange is trading up $348 at $19,295 the high for the day remain below its all-time high price at $19,891.99 from the end of 2017
  • WTI crude oil futures are trading up $0.40 or 0.89% of $45.31

In the premarket for US stocks, the futures are implying a mixed opening with the Dow down, the S&P near unchanged and the NASDAQ index modestly higher. Yesterday the Dow, S&P and Russell 2000 index all closed at record high levels, with solid gains across the spectrum:

  • Dow industrial average -46 points. Yesterday, the Dow rose 1.54%
  • S&P index is unchanged. Yesterday the S&P rose 1.62%
  • NASDAQ index up 25 points. Yesterday the NASDAQ index rose by 1.31%

In the European equity markets, the major indices are trading lower (with the exception of Italy's FTSE MIB index) after yesterdays surge:

  • German DAX, -0.16%
  • France's CAC, -0.1%
  • UK's FTSE 100, -0.6%
  • Spain's Ibex, -0.3%
  • Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.6%

In the US debt market, yields are little changed across the curve. The auctions for the week were finished early yesterday ahead of the Thanksgiving day holiday (bond markets will close early on Friday):

US yields are lower

In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are trading down about -1 to -2 basis points across the spectrum.

European yields are lower