Europe Summary and Highlights 30 Dec
Sideways trading in Europe on Dec 30 so far.
Europe Session
Traders in Europe are waiting for the FOMC minutes for the December meeting for further clues on 2026 Fed policy. Any dovish noises in the minutes could reawaken talk of an earlier cut and weigh on the USD. EUR/USD and USD/JPY remain rangebound in post-Christmas trade, with traders also looking at what will be the major catalyst in 2026. Bias is for USD to drift down, but for AI/risk on to help the USD and make this a choppy process. Spanish CPI had little impact as it came in line with expectations.
Gold and Silver made modest gains after the Dec 29 sharp selloff, which traders feel was profit-taking by spec longs. Though this is isolated, any renewed sharp selloff is seen favouring traditional safe haven such as CHF and JPY.
Asia Session
The market seems to be remain in the Christmas hangover and barely getting itself ready for the new year. Trump is keeping the headlines going with geopolitical issues, on Iran and Ukraine. So far it is all talk and does not seem to be having an impact yet. USD/JPY is trading 0.2% higher at 156.05. Both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields are making up for the Monday's losses.
Elsewhere, it is pretty quiet apart from previous metal, especially Silver rebound from the overnight slaughter. It still looks like the perfect storm of speculation and year end illiquid times. There isn't a determined direction in broader sentiment as major equity indexes apart from HSI aren't too far from their open. The antipodeans are leading the gains against the USD with AUD/USD up 0.27%, NZD/USD up 0.2%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.02%, GBP/USD up 0.01%, USD/CAD unchanged.