Investing.com - The bulls and the bears kicked off the first trading week of the new year by battling for the market's direction.
The U.S. dollar stepped away from a 14-year peak against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting unsettled investors’ expectations about the pace of interest rate rises.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped to as low as 101.73, the weakest in three weeks, just two days after it had hit a 14-year high of 103.82
Meanwhile, market participants have so far balked at the closely-watched Dow 20,000-level, with experts suggesting that President-elect Donald Trump will need to follow through on promises of tax cuts and deregulations in order for stocks to be able to maintain the upward momentum.
Trump will take office on January 20 and has yet to outline his economic policies in detail.
In the oil market, prices climbed to the strongest level since July 2015 on the first trading session of the year on Tuesday before turning sharply lower as traders continued to monitor developments surrounding the landmark deal reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and several non-OPEC oil producers to reduce their output this year.
U.S. crude was at $53.70 on Thursday, pulling back from Tuesday's 18-month high of $55.24, while Brent traded at $56.94 a barrel, after rallying to $58.37 on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, prices of web-based digital currency Bitcoin collapsed by more than 20% on Thursday, as a record-setting rally appeared to run out of steam.
Prices on U.S.-based exchanges rallied to as high as $1,150 on Wednesday, less than $100 below its November 2013 all-time high of $1,216.
To see more of Investing.com’s weekly comics, visit: http://www.investing.com/analysis/comics