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

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

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.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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