USD/CHF capped below 0.9250 remains close to multi-month lows
- The dollar fails to break 0.9250 and approaches nine-month lows at 0.9210.
- The mild rebound on US Treasury bonds is failing to lift the USD in a pre-holiday session.
- USD/CHF is on track to end the year with a minor appreciation.
The US Dollar’s mild recovery attempt seen during Friday’s Asian session has been capped at 0.9250, and the pair is giving away gains during the European trading, reaching prices close to the nine-month low of 0.9210.
The Dollar remains soft on a sluggish year-end session
The Greenback is failing to capitalize on the US Treasury bond’s modest recovery. The US Dollar Index is trading nearly 1% down on the day with the market in a pre-holiday mood on the last trading day of the year.
US macroeconomic data was not particularly Dollar-supportive on Thursday, with the Initial jobless claims up by 9,000 to 225K in the week of December 24 while the continuous claims rose to 1.71M from 1.669M in the same week.
Beyond that, concerns about the global economic impact of the surging COVID-19 infections in China and the rising tensions in Ukraine, whose main cities are suffering one of the worst artillery attacks since the start of the war, are taking a toll on risk appetite.
USD/CHF is about to end the year nearly unchanged
The pair is set to end 2022 with a minor appreciation, after having retreated nearly 10% over the last quarters.
The USD appreciated sharply in the first half of the year, boosted by the Federal Reserve’s hawkish monetary policy stance, to drop just as quickly over the last quarter on weighed by rising speculation about a potential US recession in 2023 and investors' expectations of a slowdown in the Fed’s rate hike path.
Technical levels to watch