Consumer sentiment has remained quite favorable although it continued to slowly recede in early December from its October cyclical peak. Most of the recent decline was concentrated in the long-term prospects for the economy, while consumers thought current economic conditions have continued to improve. Importantly, the largest decline in long-term economic prospects was recorded among Democrats, which reflected their concerns about the impact of the proposed changes in taxes.

Canadian industries operated at 85.0% of their production capacity in the third quarter, up from 84.3% the previous quarter. This was the fifth consecutive quarterly increase.

The increase in the third quarter was mainly driven by construction and electric power generation, transmission and distribution.

In non-manufacturing industries, increased capacity utilization in construction, electric power generation, transmission and distribution, and mining and quarrying were partly offset by a decline in oil and gas extraction, forestry and logging.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 228,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, manufacturing, and health care.

The unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent in November, and the number of unemployed persons was essentially unchanged at 6.6 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 0.5 percentage point and 799,000, respectively

In November, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents to $26.55. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 64 cents, or 2.5 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 5 cents to $22.24 in November.

• Says UK is very keen to have an implementation period agreed as soon as possible, welcomes EU urgency on this issue

• We are leaving the single market and customs union in march 2019

• Would expect May to make a statement to parliament next week on the brexit agreement, subject to parliamentary calendar

Construction output contracted for the sixth consecutive period in the three-month on three-month time series, falling by 1.4% in October 2017.

The three-month on three-month fall in construction output stemmed from falls in both repair and maintenance, and all new work, which fell by 3% and 0.6% respectively.

Construction output also contracted month-on-month in October 2017, decreasing 1.7%, in part due to a 1.5% fall in all new work.

New orders saw record growth in Quarter 3 (July to September) 2017, growing by 37.4% compared with the previous quarter.

The record growth was driven predominantly by growth in the infrastructure sector, caused by the awarding of several high-value new orders relating to High Speed 2 (HS2).

Erratic commodities (including non-monetary gold) had a large impact on headline movements in the three months to October 2017; the total UK trade (goods and services) deficit excluding erratic commodities widened by £0.8 billion to £6.9 billion.

The trade in goods deficit with non-EU countries narrowed by £2.9 billion, while the deficit with EU countries widened by £1.2 billion in the three months to October 2017; excluding erratics, the deficit with EU countries widened by £1.9 billion due to a larger increase in imports.

The UK's total trade deficit (goods and services) excluding erratic commodities narrowed by £0.1 billion between September 2017 and October 2017, due primarily to a decrease in goods imports of crude oil from non-EU countries.

In the three months to October 2017, the Index of Production was estimated to have increased by 1.2% compared with the three months to July 2017, due mainly to a rise of 1.2% in manufacturing.

The largest contribution to the rise in manufacturing in the three months to October 2017 came from transport equipment, which rose by 2.5% followed by other manufacturing and repair, which rose by 2.8%.

In October 2017, total production was estimated to have remained flat at 0.0% compared with September 2017; energy supply provided the largest downward contribution, decreasing by 3.3%, mainly because of unseasonably warm temperatures in October 2017, whilst the other three main sectors provided upward contributions, of which mining and quarrying was the largest.

China's exports expanded much faster than expected in November but the annual increase in imports outpaced export growth, data from the General Administration of Customs, cited by rttnews.

In dollar terms, exports advanced 12.3 percent year-over-year in November, well above the 5.9 percent rise economists had forecast.

Similarly, imports surged 17.7 percent in November from a year ago, faster than the expected growth of 13.0 percent.

As a result, the trade surplus totaled $40.2 billion in November. The surplus was forecast to fall to $35.0 billion from about $38.2 billion in October.

Germany exported goods to the value of 108.0 billion euros and imported goods to the value of 89.1 billion euros in October 2017. Based on provisional data, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that German exports increased by 6.8% and imports by 8.3% in October 2017 year on year. After calendar and seasonal adjustment, exports were down 0.4% and imports up 1.8% compared with September 2017.

The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 18.9 billion euros in October 2017. In October 2016, the surplus amounted to 18.8 billion euros. In calendar and seasonally adjusted terms, the foreign trade balance recorded a surplus of 19.9 billion euros in October 2017

EUR/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.1854 (3947)

$1.1813 (6026)

$1.1780 (3793)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.1749

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.1697 (5505)

$1.1649 (5982)

$1.1599 (8584)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options and PUT options with the expiration date December, 8 is 165033 contracts (according to data from December, 7) with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,1500 (8825);

GBP/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.3608 (3321)

$1.3566 (2606)

$1.3530 (3490)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.3488

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.3441 (1739)

$1.3384 (1298)

$1.3343 (1563)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options with the expiration date December, 8 is 56167 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3400 (3804);

- Overall open interest on the PUT options with the expiration date December, 8 is 49357 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3000 (3851);

- The ratio of PUT/CALL was 0.88 versus 0.89 from the previous trading day according to data from December, 7

* - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange bulletin (CME) is used for the calculation.

** - Open interest takes into account the total number of option contracts that are open at the moment.

(pare/closed(GMT +3)/change, %)

EUR/USD $1,1772 -0,20%

GBP/USD $1,3473 +0,60%

USD/CHF Chf0,99419 +0,44%

USD/JPY Y113,07 +0,70%

EUR/JPY Y133,31 +0,65%

GBP/JPY Y152,348 +1,30%

AUD/USD $0,7512 -0,67%

NZD/USD $0,6829 -0,74%

USD/CAD C$1,28532 +0,52%