DailyFX US AM Digest: US Dollar Pushes Higher Still the Day Before NFPs

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The US Dollar is extending its gains the day before the November US Nonfarm Payrolls report is released, as speculation that the tax bill will signed into legislation before the end of 2017 grows. Likewise, concerns from other currencies are aiding the greenback’s ascent on Thursday. The British Pound continues to deal with tumult stemming from Brexit headlines around the Ireland/Northern Ireland border. The Canadian Dollar has sharply reverted its gains as the Bank of Canada cautioned that, despite recent progress in economic data, “caution” is advised on rate hikes.

DailyFX Economic Calendar: Thursday, December 7, 2017 – North American Releases

It’s a fairly normal Thursday on the economic calendar, with a smatter of ‘low’ and ‘medium’ importance data releases (like the weekly US claims data), but nothing that stands out in particular. Today is a bit of the ‘eye of the storm’ for the North American economic calendar this week, having just seen the BOC rate decision yesterday while waiting for the US Nonfarm Payrolls report tomorrow.

IG Client Sentiment Index Chart of the Day: USDJPY

Learn more about the IG Client Sentiment Index on the DailyFX Sentiment page

USDJPY: Retail trader data shows 60.5% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 1.53 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-long since Nov 15 when USDJPY traded near 113.603; price has moved 0.8% lower since then. The number of traders net-long is 6.6% higher than yesterday and 12.5% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 2.0% lower than yesterday and 2.8% higher from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests USDJPY prices may continue to fall. Positioning is more net-long than yesterday but less net-long from last week. The combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a further mixed USDJPY trading bias.

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