Market Drivers – US Session 23/12/2022

Mohamed Abdelhamid 24 December, 2022 2:51 am Commodities, Forex Market, Market Update

The US dollar showed signs of recovery in a bullish correction, supported by positive US data that has fueled speculation that the Fed will pursue fighting inflation in 2023.

The dollar remained mostly flat for the day in low-volume holiday markets, trading around 104.34. The index has stuck to a range of between 104.124 and 104.536 on the day.

Economic Data

Atlanta Fed GDPNow tracker for the fourth quarter has moved up 3.7% from +2.7%. earlier on Friday,

As expected, Durable Goods Orders data in the US retreated in November. The US Dollar Index is within its daily range below 104.50 after the data. Durable Goods Orders in the US declined by 2.1%, or $5.8 billion, in November to $270.6 billion, the US Census Bureau announced on Friday. This reading comes after October’s increase of 0.7% and is looked upon as worse than the market expectation for a decrease of 0.6%.

The US Dollar Index failed to make a decisive move downwards or upwards following this data and was last seen trading flat on the day at 104.38.

Sales of new single‐family houses rose by 5.8% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000, the data published jointly by the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development showed on Friday.

Key Developments

On Friday, crude oil prices settled about $3 per barrel higher for a second straight week of gains following Moscow said it could reduce crude output in response to the G7 price cap on Russia’s energy exports.

Brent crude settled at $83.92, up by $2.94 or 3.6%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $79.56 a barrel, up $2.07, or 2.7%. Both benchmarks recorded their biggest weekly gains since October.

Russia may cut oil output by 5% to 7% in early 2023 as it responds to price caps, the RIA news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Friday.

Russia’s Baltic oil exports could fall by 20% in December from the previous month after the European Union and G7 nations have imposed sanctions and a price cap on Russian crude from Dec. 5, according to traders and Reuters calculations.

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