Erica Villalon

The Canadian dollar is unchanged on Friday, the final session before the week of Christmas. Currently, USD/CAD is trading at the 1.35 line. On the release front, the markets are keeping a close eye on today’s key indicators out of Canada and the US. Canadian markets will be closed on Monday and Tuesday. After an uneventful week, there was plenty of data for the markets to digest on Thursday. US Final GDP for the third quarter posted an excellent gain of 3.5%, above the forecast of 3.3%. Durable goods reports were a mixed bag. Core Durable Goods Orders gained 0.5%, above the forecast of 0.2%. Durable Goods Orders posted a sharp decline of 4.6%, but this was better than the forecast of -4.9%. On the employment front, unemployment claims jumped to 275 thousand, much weaker than the forecast of 255 thousand. Still, the 4-week average of jobless claims remains at very low levels. In Canada, key numbers were a mixed bag on Thursday. Inflation indicators disappointed and headed downwa

USD Temp Pull Back: Net Bearish Bets on Euro Dollar Futures : Speculators dialed back their net bearish bets on Eurodollar futures from record highs after the Federal Reserve as expected raised interes...

Speculators dialed back their net bearish bets on Eurodollar futures from record highs after the Federal Reserve as expected raised interest rates last week, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. Speculators also pared their net bearish or short bets on U.S. 10-year Treasury note futures from their highest levels since April 2010. On the other hand, speculative net shorts in two-year and five-year Treasury futures rose as the U.S. central bank surprised traders by hinting it might raise interest rates at a faster pace than had previously thought. The amount of speculators' bearish, or short, positions in Eurodollar futures exceeded bullish, or long, positions by 2.008 million contracts on Dec. 20, down from a record 2.358 million net shorts in the prior week, according to the CFTC's latest Commitments of Traders data. Speculative net shorts in 10-year T-notes fell to 221,058 contracts, down from 268,395 which was the most net shorts