Forex Today: Brexit redux and trade fears continue to hurt risk appetite, favor dollar

Here is what you need to know on Wednesday, December 18:

The US dollar has emerged the outright winner across its main peers so far this Wednesday, as revived no-deal Brexit fears continued to hurt the sterling while persistent concerns over the lack of details in the US-China trade deal weighed on the higher-yielding Antipodeans.

Meanwhile, the sentiment around safe-havens such as the Japanese yen and gold remained underpinned amid cautious market mood, as the Asian equities were a mixed mag and Treasury yields reported minor losses. S&P 500 futures flipped to the negative territory heading into Europe.

Across the G10 fx space, GBP/USD was the main laggard and breached the 1.31 handle after seeing the worst daily decline in over a year on Tuesday. EUR/USD failed repeated attempts to sustain above the 200-day SMA and kept its range trade intact above 1.1100.

USD/JPY eased slightly below 109.50, in light of a potential Japan-Russia geopolitical conflict. Russia seized 5 Japanese fishing vessels on Dec, 17^th. Meanwhile, the Antipodeans ignored China’s intent to ease monetary policy conditions, as dovish RBA expectations pressured the Aussie. The Kiwi saw some profit-taking slide ahead of New Zealand’s Q3 GDP report.

Gold hovered below $ 1480, Crude oil corrected from three-month highs following an unexpected climb in the weekly US Crude Stocks.

Cryptocurrencies paused the sell-off, with Bitcoin attempting a tepid bounce on $ 6,600.