• The dollar fell to its lowest since late September against a basket of currencies on Friday as investors grew optimistic about the strength of the euro zone’s recovery and lost appetite for the greenback.
The euro hit its highest since Sept. 25 against the dollar, up 0.65 percent on the day and more than 1 percent for the week. It was the single currency’s third straight week of gains, its best run since July, and second straight 1 percent weekly gain.
The dollar index fell to its lowest since Sept. 26 at 92.675, having suffered its worst single-day decline in more than five months on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed some policymakers were concerned about stubbornly weak U.S. inflation.
For the week, the dollar index fell nearly 1 percent, its worst weekly loss since September.
• Germany was in the spotlight over the weekend, with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) reversing course over coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. A member of the SPD on Saturday indicated that party members were likely to approve entering a coalition with the CDU if SPD leaders made a "convincing proposal."
On the data front, business confidence data in Germany hit a record level in November, according to data released Friday. The Ifo survey rose to 117.5 compared to the 116.6 projected in a Reuters poll.
• The euro traded higher on Friday following those developments, touching as high as $1.1944 during the session compared to Thursday's close of $1.1848. The common currency traded at $1.1921 at 8:10 a.m. HK/SIN.
• The changing of the guard at the Fed will be a big focus for investors in the week ahead.
Fed governor Jerome Powell, selected by President Donald Trump as the next Fed chair, appears before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday for his confirmation hearing and should provide some insight into how he plans to lead the Fed. The next day, Fed Chair Janet Yellen testifies on the economy on Capitol Hill, before the Joint Economic Committee.
• "I don't think people expect him to be much different than Yellen," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at Lindsey Group. "I'm curious as to what he'll say about QE [quantitative easing] and whether it's a tool in the future. The question is will he be his own man or a Yellen look-alike?"
Powell is widely expected to sound close to Yellen on monetary policy, but perhaps looser when it comes to banking regulation. There are a number of other Fed speakers, including New York Fed President William Dudley, who also is expected to exit his role next year.
• A battle between the White House and Democrats over warring appointments to head up the top U.S. regulator for consumer finance is likely headed for the courts, opening any interim actions by the agency to legal challenges, lawyers said on Saturday.
Richard Cordray, a Democrat, stepped down on Friday as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was created after the financial crisis to protect consumers from abusive lending practices, and he named staffer Leandra English as acting director.
The Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, a driving force behind the establishment of the CFPB before she entered Congress, tweeted on Friday that Trump “can nominate the next CFPB director – but until that nominee is confirmed by the Senate, Leandra English is the acting director under the Dodd-Frank Act.”
• Black Friday and Thanksgiving online sales in the United States surged to record highs as shoppers bagged deep discounts and bought more on their mobile devices, heralding a promising start to the key holiday season, according to retail analytics firms.
U.S. retailers raked in a record $7.9 billion in online sales on Black Friday and Thanksgiving, up 17.9 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measures transactions at the largest 100 U.S. web retailers, on Saturday.
• Bitcoin is getting in on the shopping surge of Thanksgiving weekend.
The digital currency soared above $9,400 to a record high Sunday following increased investor interest around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping.
Bitcoin rose more than 8 percent to a record high of $9,484.91 according to CoinDesk, and was trading around $9,300 Sunday afternoon. Another digital currency, ethereum, also hit an all-time high of $485.19 Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap.
"The move appears to be retail driven," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy.
• Catalonia’s former leader challenged Spain and the European Union to respect the result of Catalan regional elections in December, saying Madrid would have to end direct rule if separatists win.
Speaking from Belgium where he fled earlier this month, Carles Puigdemont said the vote was the most important in Catalonia’s history.
“Will you accept the results of December 21 if the pro-independence camp wins?,” he asked after supporters chanted “Puigdemont, our president” during a speech to unveil his list of candidates for the vote.
• U.S. oil prices hit their highest levels in more than two years on Friday after the continued shutdown of a pipeline running from Canada to the United States was expected to reduce supply into a major storage facility.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) CLc1 settled up 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $58.95 a barrel. Trading volumes were thin on Friday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 rose 31 cents, or 0.49 percent, to settle at $63.86 a barrel.
• TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO)’s 590,000 barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline, linking Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries, shut on Nov. 16 after a spill was found in South Dakota.
It is not clear when the pipeline would return to operation, but it carries a large portion of crude into Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI futures, so its shutdown means fewer barrels going into storage.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, The Guardian
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