30.12.16

Good morning,

As 2016 draws to a close markets are winding down for the long weekend. There will be a new United States President in 3 weeks time, as the current President has yesterday given 35 Russian diplomats 72 hours to leave the United States as persona non grata. The Asian session was very quiet leading into the long weekend,with just Private Sector Credit figures out of Australia. AUDUSD trading at 0.7220 at time of writing. European markets will see a quiet day on the data front with no significant market moving data expected. Austria, Italy and Greece will publish Producer Price Index data, Poland will release Consumer Price Index data, while Ireland and Greece will release Retail Sales figures for October. EURUSD trading at 1.0511 at time of writing.

Across the Atlantic today we will get the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index for December, and the Baker Hughes US Oil Rig Count, USOIL was trading at around $54 per barrel while GOLD was trading close to $1160 per ounce at time of writing. The long weekend will break as late as Wednesday in New Zealand. Russia will remain closed all week. Both the FOMC and the ECB will release minutes next week.

I hope you all have a nice weekend.