GBP/USD posted huge gains last week, climbing 2.3%.
The upcoming week has three events, including second-estimate GDP.
Here is an outlook for the highlights and an updated technical analysis for GBP/USD.
The markets were glued to the Brexit talks last week. The talks continued as a Sunday deadline came and went, which boosted the pound. However, the rally fizzled on Friday, an agreement remained elusive.
UK Employment numbers were a mix. Wage growth rose to 2.7%, up strongly from 1.3% beforehand. Unemployment claims jumped 64.3 thousand, which was much higher than the forecast of 10.5 thousand. As well, the unemployment rate edged up to 4.9%, up from 4.8%. Inflation fell in November, as headline CPI dropped from 0.7% to 0.3%. Core CPI slowed to 1.1% down from 1.5%.
Dec 17, 2020 14:57 GMTFXStreet News
Philly Fed Manufacturing Index fell at a stronger pace than expected in December.
US Dollar Index remains depressed below 90.00 after the data.
The headline Diffusion Index of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey fell sharply to 11.1 in December from 26.3 in November. This reading missed the market expectation of 20 by a wide margin.
Key takeaways
“The current shipments index fell 11 points to 14.4 in December.”
“The current employment index has remained positive for six consecutive months but decreased 19 points to 8.5 in December.”
“The survey’s future indicators for activity and new orders were slightly weaker this month, but future indicators for shipments and employment improved.”
Dec 17, 2020 09:52 GMTFXStreet News
USD/CHF edged lower for the fourth consecutive session amid sustained USD selling bias.
The SNB announced its latest monetary policy decision and left interest rates unchanged.
The announcement did little to provide any impetus and turned out to be a non-event.
The USD/CHF pair remained depressed near multi-year lows, around the 0.8830 region through the early European session and moved little post-SNB.
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced its latest monetary policy decision this Thursday and decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at -0.75%. In the accompanying statement, the SNB reiterated that the Swiss franc is highly valued and that is will remain active in the FX market as necessary.