Forex Today: Gold hits all-time high as geopolitical tensions escalate
|Here is what you need to know on Monday, December 4:
Gold price hit a new record high near $2,150 at the weekly opening as markets reacted to escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. October Factory Orders will be the only data featured in the US economic docket on Monday. Investors will continue to pay close attention to headlines surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict and comments from central bankers.
Yemen's Houthi rebels hit three commercial ships in the Red Sea on Sunday and a US warship responded by shooting down three drones. In a statement released after the event, the US military's Central Command said that they have "every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran." Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi movement acknowledged that they had targeted two Israeli ships in this attack, saying that they were responding to calls from Islamic nations to stand with the Palestinian people.
Reflecting the risk-averse market atmosphere, US stock index futures trade in negative territory in the early European session. The US Dollar (USD) Index, which registered small losses in the previous week, found support slightly above 103.00.
US Dollar price today
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies today. US Dollar was the strongest against the New Zealand Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | CAD | AUD | JPY | NZD | CHF | |
| USD | 0.16% | 0.29% | 0.25% | 0.45% | 0.23% | 0.52% | 0.34% | |
| EUR | -0.17% | 0.13% | 0.11% | 0.33% | 0.05% | 0.37% | 0.20% | |
| GBP | -0.31% | -0.15% | -0.04% | 0.16% | -0.06% | 0.23% | 0.05% | |
| CAD | -0.28% | -0.12% | 0.02% | 0.18% | -0.07% | 0.26% | 0.07% | |
| AUD | -0.45% | -0.33% | -0.19% | -0.22% | -0.28% | 0.04% | -0.13% | |
| JPY | -0.24% | -0.05% | 0.24% | 0.07% | 0.28% | 0.33% | 0.13% | |
| NZD | -0.52% | -0.38% | -0.23% | -0.27% | -0.07% | -0.30% | -0.18% | |
| CHF | -0.38% | -0.20% | -0.07% | -0.11% | 0.09% | -0.13% | 0.16% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).
After setting a new all-time high, Gold retreated in the Asian trading hours. At the time of press, XAU/USD was still up 0.5% on the day at $2,080.
Following a drop to a fresh two-week low of 1.0828 on Friday, EUR/USD managed to recover toward 1.0900 ahead of the weekend. Early Monday, the pair fluctuates in a tight channel above 1.0850. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde and several other ECB policymakers are scheduled to speak later in the day.
GBP/USD closed the third consecutive week in positive territory before going into a consolidation phase below 1.2700 early Monday.
USD/JPY fell to a multi-month low below 146.30 in the Asian trading hours on Monday but rebounded above 146.50 in the early European session. Tokyo Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from Japan will be released on Tuesday.
USD/CAD fell below 1.3500 for the first time in two months on Friday after Statistics Canada reported that Net Change in Employment was +24.9K in November, higher than the market expectation of 15K. Falling crude oil prices made it difficult for the Canadian Dollar to preserve its strength and USD/CAD advanced above 1.3500 to start the week.
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