GFX Morning FX Commentary

Good Morning,

Today’s expected range for the Canadian Dollar against the US Dollar is 1.1550-1.1630

Today’s expected range for the Canadian Dollar against the Euro is 1.4260-1.4340

Today’s expected range for the Canadian Dollar against Sterling is 1.8140-1.8220

The US Dollar is marginally weaker this morning after a wild afternoon yesterday. In the US Federal Reserve announcement the Fed did in fact remove the statement “interest rates will remain low for a considerable time”, in its place they put “judges that it can be patient in beginning normalizing the stance of monetary policy” (means increasing interest rates in normal speak), this has been interpreted by the markets that they will not increase interest rates until the start of the 2^nd quarter, the Greenback traded stronger on the day as both Euro and Sterling gave up around 50 points but overall I think the market was disappointed in the language change. In the UK overnight Sterling climbed from a 5-year low against the US Dollar as Retail Sales for November came in much higher than expectation.

Of interest this morning was the Swiss Franc(CHF, the Swiss National Bank introduced negative interest rates to weaken the currency and to help defend their cap against the Euro at 1.20. If they did not do this you would have seen a massive rally in the Swiss something the SNB is armament will not happen.

In Russia, Putin was addressing a group of reporters and as you would expect he blamed everything on the West trying to destroy the Russian economy, told reporters that Ukraine should not be fighting the Pro-Russian Separatists and that he was working for peace in the region and finally he reassured the Russian people that the economy and Ruble would rebound. All of this sounds just like every other dictator in history that ruined their country for self-serving purposes.

The Loonie got stronger yesterday afternoon as the price of oil rebounded trading above the $59 level for a while, oil has given a little back this morning but if oil can hold onto these gains over the next few days then Canada and other commodity currencies should benefit. The Loonie has made considerable gains against the Euro and Sterling this morning so it may be time to buy some of those currencies if you need to make a payment. The rally that we saw for the Loonie yesterday is exactly what I have been talking about when I stated that buyers need to be ready even on the smallest of rallies, US dollar buyers need to take advantage of these rates as the strong US Dollar trend is still intact.

Up today we get some secondary US data, oil will remain the dominant market force and volatility should remain high, make sure you have your orders in to take advantage of any movements.

Have a great day

Mike

GFX Morning Currency Rates
Currencies	7:00am Today's Opening				Yesterday's Opening			4:30pm December 17th Closing Rates
USD/CAD	1.1578				1.1644				1.165
CAD/USD	0.8637				0.8588				0.8583
EUR/USD	1.2317				1.2455				1.2333
EUR/CAD	1.4263				1.4504				1.4364
STG/CAD	1.8128				1.8309				1.8127
AUD/CAD	0.948				0.9535				0.9465
CAD/JPY	102.42				100.54				101.85
CAD/CHF	0.8481				0.8278				0.835
CAD/HKD	6.6785				6.6385				6.6318
CAD/CNY	5.3675				5.321				6.1997
CAD/MXN	12.5094				12.6616				12.4666
Commodities
Gold	$1,208.50				$1,199.70				$1,189.60
OIL	$58.14				$54.83				$56.16
US DOLLAR INDEX
OPEN	89.25				88.44				89.27
US 10YR YIELD	2.18%				2.09%				2.14%