Summary:

• GBP jumps on the back of fresh comments from Theresa May on Brexit
• US dollar holds its gains after the progress when it comes to the tax bill
• European indices begin the week in excellent moods, the US futures point to an optimistic opening as well

The US dollar was the best performing currency within the G10 basket in the morning, however things have changed since then and the pound has stolen the show. A quick jump seen in the GBP is attributed to remarks from UK PM Theresa May who said that a progress in Brexit talks has been made but more needs to be agreed. Do notice that Monday is a deadline set by the EU some time ago when a significant progress in negotiations has to be made in order to allow both sides to go into the second phase of talks. The GBP is rising as much as 0.4% at the time of writing and it’s being underpinned by the better than forecast reading of UK construction PMI.

The US dollar is trying to catch up its losses which occurred in the aftermath of reports related to Michael Flynn on Friday afternoon. A remedy came several hours later when the US Senate managed to pass the tax bill by a narrow majority (51-49) on Saturday morning where just Bob Corker was the sole Republican voting against the bill. President Donald Trump praised lawmakers and said that he was looking forward to signing the tax bill before Christmas. Right now the greenback is the second best currency in G10 just behind the pound.

In terms of the stock market one may notice that European indices have had a strong start to the week as the passage of tax bill in the US Senate keeps the Trump Trade alive. This also sidelined reports saying that former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian officials in the 2016 US election. Banks and insurers benefit from higher yields and weaker euro against the US dollar could support European exporters. Being in the midst of the trading day we can see stunning performance seen across the European equity markets as they’re increasing well above 1% barring the FTSE100 (UK100 on xStation5) which has trimmed its gains following a surge in the pound and now it’s trading 0.4% higher. In turn, the US stocks are slated to open the week with gains as well as the SP500 (US500) futures point to a 0.6% gain less than two hour before the

The beginning to the new week on Bitcoin was remarkably chaotic as the price set its new high shy of $12,000 and marked a slump thereafter. Even as there were no straightforward reasons for such a fall one may attribute it to a Telegraph’s article claiming that UK ministers are launching a crackdown on the virtual currency Bitcoin amid growing concern it is being used to launder money and dodge tax.

This week abounds with many relevant economic prints including those from the US. On top of that, we’re going to have monetary policy decisions from Canada and Australia. Let us come forth with a full tally of the most crucial macroeconomic events scheduled for this week.