The first full of trading day of the new year (and decade) has on the whole seen only modest currency price action.
While the US Dollar has made small gains versus the Euro, Sterling, Australian Dollar and in particular Kiwi Dollar so far in 2020, it is down 0.3% against the safe-haven Japanese Yen and broadly unchanged in trade-weighted terms. There has been little market reaction to the release (on Tuesday) of data showing that US Conference Board consumer confidence was broadly unchanged for the third consecutive month in December, with the index still hovering above 126.0.
The Kiwi Dollar has weakened about 0.5% versus the Dollar in the past 48 hours (and 0.4% in trade-weighted terms) but it is worth noting that, along with Sterling, it is one of the more volatile developed currencies. In 2019, the Kiwi Dollar traded in a 10.8%-wide range versus the US Dollar. By comparison, the USD/CHF, EUR/USD and AUD/USD crosses traded in ranges of respectively 5.5%, 6% and 8.5%.
