Euro dropped to new two year low against the dollar after the pro-austerity prime minister Antonis Samaras failed, in his third attempt, to secure parliamentary support for his candidate Stavros Dimas for president. Samaras said he would call for election on January 25. Meanwhile, the anti-austerity left wing opposition Syriza is seen as leading and could win that election. Syriza has openly expressed that they would want to renegotiate with international creditor Troika to wipe out a big part of the debt and cancel some terms. Some analysts noted that Greece could be in a new turmoil and it's only at an early stage.
The Dollar extended its recent rally. The break of down trend in daily MACD suggests that the index is building upside momentum again. The rise from 78.90 is expected to extend to next long term projection level at 100% projection of 72.69 to 84.75 from 78.90 at 90.96. In any case, near term outlook will stay bullish as long as 89.65 support holds.
Elsewhere, markets were relatively quiet yesterday. US equities were mixed with DJIA down -15.48 pts, or -0.09% to close at 18038.23. But S&P 500 rose slightly by 1.8 pts, or 0.09% to close at 2090.57. Asian equities were generally down with Nikkei 225 losing -125pts, or -0.7% at the time of writing. Gold pares back some recovery and was trading below 1190. Meanwhile, crude oil extended recent down trend and r3eaches as low as 53.51 so far.
Looking ahead, UK nationwide house prices, Eurozone M3 will be released in today's European session. S&P case shiller house price and conference board consumer confidence will be released in US session today.