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The Canadian dollar picked up some support against the US dollar after markets started speculating that the Trump administration could postpone new tariffs on Chinese imports.
This caused a swing from a risk-off undertone in the morning to a slight risk-on sentiment with the opening of the New York session. Gold spiked lower and most global stock indices received a push higher.
According to sources familiar with the topic, China expects the Trump administration will delay implementing additional tariffs on Sunday as both sides are already working on removing import tariffs currently in place.
A delay of the December 15 tariff deadline would be positive for future trade talks between the two world’s largest economies and help in reaching a phase-one deal, according to Beijing. Over the course of the trade war, the United States has already imposed a 25% tariff on $250 billion of Chinese imports and another 15% of duties on $110 billion of imports.
Besides trade headlines, markets are also awaiting the Fed monetary policy meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
Markets largely expect that the Fed will hold rates steady at the current 1.75%, given that there are signs of a phase-one trade deal, equities are up to all-time highs, and recent economic data signals a pretty robust US economy. To recall, the US economy added 266K new jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to a multi-decade low of 3.5%.
While there are no market reports of note from Canada today, the BoC Governor Poloz will hold a speech about Canada’s economic outlook for 2020 on Thursday.
From a technical standpoint, the Canadian dollar is picking up support at the 61.8% Fib level of the recent post-BoC downturn. However, markets will likely remain in consolidation mode ahead of tomorrow’s Fed decision and the December 15 tariff deadline. As of 2:30 p.m. London time, one US dollar bought 1.3235 Canadian dollars.
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