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<p>The major US stock indices got off to a good start to the holiday-shortened trading week with solid gains. The small-cap Russell 2000 continued its outperformance with a gain of 1.24% to lead the way higher. The Nasdaq index led the Big 3 indices. </p><p>The final numbers are showing:</p><ul><li>The Dow indust

<p>Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda spoke on Monday. </p><p>Justin had the main headlines here:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/centralbank/bojs-ueda-we-will-consider-changing-policy-if-positive-wage-inflation-cycle-strengthens-20231225/" target="_blank" rel="follow"

<p>Its a light calendar here for the Asia session with the only item of note being the Bank of Japan Summary of Opinions from the December 18 and 19 meeting. Policy was left unchanged at that meeting despite the feverish speculation of an imminent policy change from the Bank:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive

<p>The U.S. Treasury sold 2-year notes at high yield of 4.314%</p><ul><li>Last auction yield was at 4.887%.</li><li>Bid to cover 2.68X versus 2.54X last auction</li><li>Dealers take 18.63% versus 18.76% at the last auction</li><li>Directs take 19.51% versus 23.9% at the last auction</li

<p>US stock trading for the holiday-shortened week is off and running. The major indices are all trading modestly higher led by the Nasdaq index. The week starts with the major indices up for 8 consecutive weeks. </p><p>A snapshot of the market currently shows:</p><ul><li>Dow Industrial Average up 24.7 points or

<p>The mood is generally positive following the holiday but it's a thinned-out day and a time of year for light trading. S&amp;P 500 futures are up 0.1% and Nasdaq futures up 0.2%.</p><p>Two spots to watch:</p><ol><li>Oil is up $1.70 and that's pushing up front-end yields. In turn, that should stoke

<p>The weekend drone attack that the Pentagon blamed on Iran has the oil market on edge once again. WTI crude oil is up $1.52 to $75.06 and trading near a session high.</p><p>Last week, oil traded as high as $75.37 before fading.</p><p>The rally in oil is helping to boost the Canadian dollar with USD/CAD down 40-pips [

<ul><li>Prior was +3.9%</li><li>20-city m/m index +0.6% vs +0.6% expected (prior +0.7%)</li></ul><p>FHFA data:</p><ul><li>Prices y/y +6.3% vs +6.1% prior</li><li>Prices m/m +0.3% vs +0.6% prior</li></ul><p>The fall in US interest rates will provide a boost to

<ul><li>Prior was -0.49 (revised to -0.66)</li><li>Employment-related indicators contributed +0.03 to the CFNAI in November, up from –0.15 in October</li><li>Production-related indicators made a neutral contribution to the CFNAI in November, up from –0.37 in October</li></ul><p>This is a composi

<ul><li>Prior was +6.3</li><li>Firm-level business activity +8.5 vs +10.3 prior</li><li>New orders -3.3 vs -8.6 prior</li><li>Full-time employment +7.6 vs +14.7 prior</li><li>Wage and benefit cost index +35.2 vs +32.8 prior</li></ul><p>This is a lower-tier indicator but i