We’ve entered a traditionally-quiet time of the year in financial markets but it seems like Christmas traditions aren’t what they used to be. The FX market is lively so far today with USD/JPY up another 75 pips.
There is something of a sigh of relief in equities after Congress passed the bill to avoid the government shutdown late on Friday. S&P 500 futures are up 6 points with stocks in Europe modestly higher.
Treasury yields are up 1-3 bps across the curve and that’s helped to lift the US dollar broadly.
There are a few notable releases today starting at the bottom of the hour with Canadian October monthly GDP and the November PPI report.
Then at 10 am ET, the focus turns to US consumer confidence, which is expected to rise to 113.3 from 111.7. There hasn’t been as much of a Trump-bump in some of the data as I expected but it’s still early.