Last week saw the greenback attempt to recover from what has been a tumultuous time for the currency in light of the large amount of asset purchases being carried out by the FED. Market participants digested news of a complete ‘blue wave’ after the democrats took control of both the House and the Senate paving the way for Biden and his team as they ramp up efforts to provide more support to businesses and households in the wake of the pandemic. Cases and deaths continue to rise globally despite increasing efforts to improve the speed of the vaccine rollout. To start the week, the DXY is firmer, breaking above 90.25. Conversely, EURUSD trades to multi-week lows after violating 1.2200.

Energy prices are surging, with Brent crude hitting a 10-month high after a 2% rise Australia and China have led the New Year push higher, with 2021 starting in style across the commodity and non-fiat sphere. Losses in Japanese markets ensured a less-than-perfect start, despite a better-than-expected final manufacturing PMI reading of 50. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks gained ground despite the disappointing Caixin manufacturing PMI reading of 53.0 (down from 54.9).

Last week saw the USD continue to slide lower after market participants were reminded of the FED’s dovish stance at their most recent FOMC Conference. The DXY broke 90.00 as the greenback weakened across all major assets and EUR/USD broke above 1.2250.

Cryptoassets took centre stage as BTC/USD broke to new all-time highs and finished the week up over 22%. The surge was also seen across the altcoins as ETHUSD broke above the $650 mark. Going into the week ahead; dollar strength has returned amidst fears of a new Covid-19 strain that has been sighted across the UK and as a result led to tighter restrictions on movement and travel.

Going into final full week of trading, markets are somewhat positive after Asian bourses began the day upbeat. Both the ASX 200 and Nikkei 225 finished the session with gains albeit less than 1%. The DXY remains subdued beneath the 91.00 handle after gains within other G10 currencies weighed on the greenback. The EUA by the FDA for the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine also lifted markets as US equity futures digested the news. Despite this, Covid-19 readings in the nation continue to rise with cases topping 15.9mln and total deaths closing in on 300,000. Across the pond Germany is planning to shut most shops from this Wednesday until the 10th of January in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. This comes after German Chancellor Merkel outlined that the current lockdown restrictions have failed to reduce infections rates by a reasonable amount.

The US top three stock exchanges all reached all-time highs last week, despite Friday’s dismal jobs report. In November, the US economy added only 245,000 positions, well below consensus projections of 440,000. The unemployment rate did fall to 6.7%, down from 6.9% the month prior. Wall Street chose to see the silver lining in the weaker-than-expected number. Traders believe the lacklustre report could spur lawmakers to move faster on an additional coronavirus relief package.

Last week the greenback continued to experience broad weakness within markets despite statements from Trump outlining that Covid-19 vaccine delivery will start this week as well as soothing comments suggesting that he will leave the White House if the electoral college votes for Biden. The DXY remained subdued beneath the 92.00 handle as EUR/USD closed above 1.1950. Gold selling continued as investors decided to seek riskier plays leading to a slump of over 4.5% for the inflation hedged asset. Looking to the week ahead, attention in the US will turn to the quantitative data set for release as market participants aim to gauge how the labour market has fared in the past month. NFP’s be released on Friday and is set to see another 500K jobs added to the market whilst the unemployment rate is expected to tick lower by 0.1% to 6.8%

Asian equity markets began the week positive despite the bank holiday in Japan as the region gained on positive vaccine developments and the recent news that some nations will be transitioning to distribution in the next coming weeks. Reports that the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for Regeneron’s REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail also spurred markets despite the rising infections in the US as cases mounted to 12mln. US President-elect Biden is also set to announce his Cabinet on Tuesday amidst the constant rhetoric from Trump suggesting that the election voting was compromised in some key states.