ACTIVITY IS LOW DUE TO THE HOLIDAY SEASON

The activity of traders on the market remains low due to the celebration of Christmas and New Year. The main trend on the market after the long weekend, is the US dollar weakening on the back of a revised attitude of investors to the tax cuts in the US. Now most attention has turned to the growing debt in the US and lower expectations on the American economic expansion. On the other side, softer fiscal policy will stimulate investments in the US that in turn is likely to strengthen the greenback. Tomorrow traders will monitor news from America on the goods trade balance in November and weekly report on unemployment claims.

Today on the course of USD/JPY, trading may impact the macro data on retail sales and the preliminary industrial production report in Japan at 23:50 GMT. The support for the Japanese Yen may see increased demand for defensive assets due to uncertainty about the future growth of the stock markets.

The quotes of the American crude oil benchmark WTI are correcting after the sharp increase caused by the explosion on the Libyan oil pipeline and crude oil production cuts in the OPEC countries. We should note that oil futures recently touched the psychologically important 60-dollar mark and in order to fix above it we need to see a powerful impulse. Tomorrow volatility is likely to increase after the release of important news on crude oil inventories in the US.

EUR/USD

The EUR/USD demonstrates a confident upward impulse and should it overcome the 1.1900-1.1925 range, the next targets will be at 1.2000 and 1.2200. On the other hand, we may see the price decline to the strong support at 1.1825.

USD/JPY

The USD/JPY price is consolidating above the important support at 113.00. Its ability to break after a long consolidation within the narrow range, may become the trigger for the bears to pull the quotes down to the immediate objectives at 111.70 and 110.30. On the other side, growth potential is likely to be limited by the 114.00 resistance line.

USD/WTI

The USD/WTI was unable to overcome the strong resistance level at 60.00 and is currently moving downwards within the correction. The closest target in the case of maintaining the current impulse, will be at 59.00 and then, the decline may continue to the inclined support line. A growth resumption and gaining a foothold above 60.00 may become the basis for the further price increase up to 62.00.