President-elect Donald Trump first press conference saw the U.S. dollar fall in volatile trading last night as traders were still left waiting on details on the Republican’s policy plans.
Traders had hoped that Trump would discuss his plans on tax reform, reducing regulation and his stimulus plans to improve the economy. Instead information was sparse with Trump instead focusing on penalizing companies who transfer jobs off shore and “bad” trade deals.
Prior to the press conference the EUR/USD had fallen from 1.0550 to 1.0454 but then jumped to 1.0623 upon it’s completion. AUD/USD rose from 0.7352 to 0.7472 while USD/JPY fell from a high of 116.87 to 114.26 all on the back of U.S. dollar weakness.
The British pound touched three month fresh lows before the Trump press conference saw it break above support at 1.21. Sterling then moved back through 1.22 before reaching a high of 1.2266.
The market will now turn it’s attention this week to a raft of Fed commentary including that of Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
Gold also benefited from Trump’s press conference reaching a seven week high. Gold for February delivery closed up 0.9% at $1,196.60 a troy ounce, the highest level since November 22, after rebounding from losses earlier in the session.
Silver for March delivery closed down 0.1% to $16.82 a troy ounce while April platinum was off 0.7% at $976.40 a troy ounce. March palladium was down 1.5% at $753.90 a troy ounce all on the back of the greenback weakness.
Meanwhile oil also rose last night as data showed that U.S. refiners processed a record amount of crude and that supplies from the main storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma had fallen by 579,000 barrels.
WTI rose 2.58% or $1.31 to $52.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent, the global benchmark, rose 2.63% or $1.41 to $55.05 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. refiners processed 17.1 million barrels of crude into fuel every day last week, the highest weekly figure since 1982.
In equities, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 2275.32 at 4 p.m. in New York, two points below its record high on Jan. 6, while the Dow resumed its pursuit of 20,000, closing 47 points from the milestone after an extremely volatile day. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 percent to 5563.65 after erasing a drop that reached 0.5 percent.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent at the close, erasing an early decline of as much as 0.3 percent while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.2 percent today to close at 7290.49, completing a record streak of 12 successive gains and a 10th consecutive all-time high.
