Australia: The Australian dollar has opened stronger this morning, keeping its head above USD1.0000 due to strong commodity price in very thin holiday trade. The AUD was well supported going into last night’s session, where it traded between USD1.0006 and USD1.0060, its highest level since November 11 when it hit USD1.0086. A solid night for the oil price lent support to the AUD, while the AUD/EUR reached another record high above EUR0.7680. AUD/GBP was also strong, briefly rising above GBP0.6530. The AUD/JPY is little changed, while the AUD/NZD failed to hold onto yesterday’s gains. The market is expecting risk appetite to remain over the holiday break, however due to thin volumes and liquidity, erratic markets movements may be heightened if we see any unexpected news developments. There is no major data being released today.

Majors: The EUR had a mixed session overnight; rallying against the CHF earlier on the session before paring back some of its gains after Fitch cut Portugal’s sovereign credit ratings to A+ with a negative outlook. Further downgrades are now expected from other ratings agencies. Elsewhere, US data were broadly in line with expectations overnight. Durable goods orders +2.4%, personal income +0.3% and jobless claims 420k, all signaling that the US recovery is on its way. US equities had a fairly mixed session but fell late in the session as investors took some profits before Christmas. Oil rose to a new two-year high overnight as cold weather in the US boosts demand, this provided supported to the commodity currencies such as the CAD, AUD and NZD. As the market now enters Christmas Eve, we are expecting a fairly quiet day for the currencies. On behalf of the team here at Bell Foreign Exchange, I would like to wish our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year. Thank you for your support in 2010, we looking to another great year ahead in 2011.

More from IBT Markets:

Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox daily

Follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook.