U.S. Dollar in familiar ranges, markets pondering

The U.S. Dollar is trading lower against the majority of its G10 peers this morning as Traders continue to digest the ouster of Nicolas Maduro, who pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in New York yesterday, and the wider Venezuelan situation, where Delcy Rodriguez has been sworn in as interim president. While Venezuelan bonds and U.S. oil stocks saw fantastic gains yesterday, the price of physical oil has swung wildly as initial production hopes have tempered and realizations that short term supply could be impacted have set in.

Yesterday we also got ISM Manufacturing numbers in the U.S., which came in softer than expected, and reinforced the dovish narrative that the Fed needs to continue cutting rates this year. Eyes ahead will be on PMI numbers later this morning, and labor data on Friday.

What to Watch This Week…

• Euro-zone CPI, Wednesday
• US Nonfarm Payrolls, Friday 8:30AM
• Monex USA Online is always open

The complete Economic Calendar can be found here.

AUD ⇑

The Australian Dollar is the G10’s best performer versus the Greenback this morning

ahead of fourth quarter inflation data releasing this evening. This will be a key figure in determining the path forward for Australian fiscal policy, as traders have already begun speculating that the Reserve Bank of Australia will be hiking rates in first half of the year.

EUR ⇓

The Euro is one of the G10’s worst performers against the Buck this morning

as a result of weak PMI prints in France and Germany. The theme right now is that domestic services are outperforming export-oriented services, highlighting the fact that Europe is facing challenges when it comes to competition on the international stage. Those challenges are likely to persist in the short term as the European Central Bank is primed to hold rates steady and let new data drive policy.