Canadian dollar suffer selloff on a relatively quiet week so far. WTI crude oil tumbled to fresh low and hit as low as 30.88 overnight and stays soft at around 31 in Asian session. There were talks that WTI is heading to 20 handle on both China slowdown and appreciation of Dollar. USD/CAD reached as high as 1.4244 and stays bullish. The pair is having solid upside momentum and should be on course to next fibonacci level at 1.4367 in near term. USD/CAD would likely stay strong even though Dollar's strength might be unconvincing elsewhere. While EUR/CAD is also strong, it's still being limited below a key long term resistance level at 1.5585 (2014 high). And clearing of this hurdle is needed to confirm medium term strength in the cross.
Elsewhere, the financial markets continue to stay calm in Asian session. DJIA closed slightly higher by 52 pts, or 0.32% overnight, while S&P 500 was up 1.64 pts or 0.09%. Nikkei dropped -364 pts, or -2% at the time of writing but it's just playing catchup due to holiday on Monday. HK HSI is up 0.2% while China SSE (L:SSE) Composite is up 0.14%. In US, Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart noted that "it’s helpful to look at the real economy of the United States as opposed to the financial economy and ask if something is fundamentally wrong." And he said there was no "serious imbalances" that made the US economy vulnerable to external shocks. And he still favored continuation of tightening of monetary policy this year.
On the data front, Japan current account surplus narrowed to JPY 1.42T in November. UK BRC retail sales monitor rose 0.1% yoy in December. Japan will also release consumer confidence index in Asian session. UK data will be the focus for the rest of the data. Industrial production is expected to rise 0.0% mom, 1.7% yoy in November. Manufacturing production is expected to rise 0.1% mom, drop -0.8% yoy in November. NIESR GDP estimate will also be released.