Powell speech: Economy strong without question

The EUR/USD pair attracts some sellers near 1.1745 during the early Asian session on Wednesday. The US Dollar edges higher against the Euro after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting. The US Initial Jobless Claims report will be released later in the day. Trading volumes are expected to remain thin ahead of the New Year holidays.

The GBP/USD pair holds steady around 1.3465 during the early Asian trading hours on Wednesday. However, the Bank of England guided that monetary policy will remain on a gradual downward path, which might underpin the Cable against the US Dollar. Financial markets are expected to trade on thin volumes as traders prepare for the New Year holiday.

Gold price makes another attempt toward $4,400 in Asian trading on Tuesday, keeping the recovery mode intact following Monday's over 4% correction. The bright metal seems to cheer upbeat Chinese NBS and RatingDog Manufacturing and Services PMI data for December. 

From the outside this session looked like paint drying. Indexes barely moved. No reaction to Case Shiller. No reaction to the Fed minutes. The S&P 500 parked itself right where it started, and the much-discussed Santa rally stalled into a polite cough.

After a year marked by global economic resilience and ending on a note of optimism, 2026 looks promising and could be a year of solid economic performance. In our baseline scenario, we expect most of the supportive factors at work in 2025 to continue to play a role in 2026.

Year 2025 was volatile, as crypto often is.  Among positive catalysts were favourable regulatory changes in the U.S., rise of Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT), adoption of AI and tokenization of Real-World-Assets (RWA).