- Canadian October retail sales +1.4% vs +1.5% expected
- US Housing starts for November 1.427M vs 1.4000M estimate
- December Philly Fed non-manufacturing survey -17.1 vs -13.6 prior
- Dec Eurozone consumer confidence -22.2 vs -22.0 expected
- FedEx highlights 'weaker demand environment' and says it's cutting costs
- Atlanta Fed Q4 GDPNow +2.7% vs +2.8% prior
- New Zealand GDT price index -3.8%
Markets:
- Gold up $30 to $1817
- US 10-year yields up 10.7 bps to 3.69%
- WTI crude oil up 57-cents to $75.97
- S&P 500 up 4 points to 3821
- JPY leads, AUD lags
USD/JPY staged somewhat of a bounce before US trading but it didn't take long to resume the fall as the pair broke through the prior bottom at 132.00 and continued to 130.59 before an afternoon bounce to 131.69. Eyes were on how the US bond market would react to the BOJ narrowing the spread to Treasuries. The long end sold off, then briefly tried to bounce before slumping again. It might take beyond year end to get a handle on where yields are going.
Otherwise it was choppy again with EUR/USD buying into the London fix as a dominant feature that was later reversed. Cable climbed late in the day to finish decently higher after two attempts to break cleanly below 1.21 were rejected.
USD/CAD fell initially but gave it back in a choppy day in the oil market.
AUD and NZD generally followed the risk trade and both finished the day lower, perhaps reflecting some yen carry trades unwinding.
