It's a quiet one so far today with the dollar holding steadier at the balance, after some struggles in the past week. A stronger Chinese yuan continues to act as a headwind for the greenback, with USD/CNY on the verge of 7.04 today. The onshore yuan is at its highest against the dollar since October 2024. Pain.

Besides that, the euro is also one that has made some decent headway against the dollar since the FOMC meeting last week. EUR/USD is taking aim at the 1.1800 mark but buyers are taking a bit of a breather today. The pair remains locked in near 1.1750 on the day, despite a mix of PMI data from the euro area earlier. Large option expiries at the 1.1750 level itself are in play, keeping price action more boxed in - at least before we get to the key US data releases later today.

FX 16-12

Overall, USD/JPY is one of the more interesting ones with the pair now testing waters below the 155.00 mark once again. The figure level has posed a bit of a challenge to sellers since the start of December, in acting as a key daily support level to prevent a steeper decline. As such, that will be one to watch today in case it leads to another downside leg in the dollar in the broader sense.

Coming up later, the key risk event will be the US labour market report and retail sales data release. It is going to be a very messy one with the jobs data set to combine both the October and November numbers.

But even so, the data points will be a vital update/snapshot of the US economy and one that market players have been long awaiting for ever since the government shutdown. So even if it might be a muddy picture, it is still one that traders and investors will decide to work with in what looks to be the final real trading week of the year.

Source: Investing Live