Forex Today: Pound pressured by Brexit plans, oil bumps on Mod-East issues, Bitcoin hungover

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Here is what you need to know on Monday, January 20:

GBP/USD is under pressure after the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid said that the UK may stray away from EU rules after Brexit. Concerns about fraught EU-UK trade talks have been weighing on investors' mood.

Oil prices have advanced with WTI nearing $60 once again. In Libya, warlord Khalifa Haftar has blocked oil exports from the part of the country he controls, knocking down 800,000 barrels out of global supply. Protests in Iraq have also limited output.

The US dollar is holding onto its gains against majors from late last week, as upbeat US retail sales and consumer confidence kept the greenback bid. See US consumer sentiment flourishes in January.

US markets are closed on Monday, limiting liquidity. Ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, authorities pumped around 200 billion yuan into the financial system. AUD/USD and NZD/USD are bid.

President Donald Trump and other politicians and business leaders are descending on Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.

Cryptocurrencies have fallen off the highs with Bitcoin trading below $8,700 after topping $9,000 over the weekend. Other digital coins made the same round trips.

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

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