THE EUR/USD PRICE ENDS THE YEAR NEAR 1.2000

The EUR/USD came close to the psychologically important 1.2000 mark during the last trading session of the year. Investors are rebalancing their positions ahead of the new financial year start and also taking their time to accumulate positions ahead of the long weekend due to the celebration of the New Year. The main focus after the holidays will be the political situation in the US, due to investigation into the connections of Donald Trump with Russia and other issues. Shifts in the FOMC during 2018 are likely to make regulators in America more hawkish which in turn will support the greenback.

The volatility of the pound Sterling may remain high due to continued Brexit talks with the EU and political headwinds inside the UK.

The positive movement of the AUD/USD is explained by the weakening of the greenback and the positive dynamics on commodity markets which traditionally has a great influence on the aussie. In the beginning of the 2018, traders will be assessing the influence of the manufacturing PMI and non-manufacturing PMI in China for December that will be published on Sunday. We recall that China is the key trading partner for Australia and the state of its economy has a significant influence on the AUD/USD dynamics.

The price for the American crude oil benchmark WTI continues to rise after the release of a report according to which the production level in the US declined to 9.754 million barrels per day vs 9.789 a week before. At the same time the volume of crude oil inventories declined by 4.61 million barrels against 4.00 million barrels expected.

EUR/USD

The single currency quotes have approached the important 1.2000 level. The chance of the price fixing above it today is unlikely and considering the RSI being in the overbought zone on 15-minute chart, there is a high possibility of a descending price correction with the potential rollback to SMA 100 on the 15-minute chart or even to the strong support at 1.1925.

AUD/USD

The AUD/USD keeps moving within a confident ascending trend and is currently trying to gain a foothold above 0.7800. In case of its success, the next target levels will be at 0.8000 and 0.8250. On the other side, the MACD signal line on the 15-minute chart has changed the direction to negative and in case of its crossing the zero mark the chances of the descending movement to the inclined support line will significantly increase.

USD/WTI

After a number of unsuccessful attempts, the USD/WTI has managed to break through the strong 60.00 resistance and gaining a foothold above it may become the reason for the further increase with the nearest targets at 62.00 and 64.00. The possible correction is likely to be limited by 59.00 and fixing below this mark may trigger massive selling with the closest goals at 57.00 and 55.00.