All eyes are on the Fed's Decision

It’s a busy day on both sides of the Atlantic, but the Fed's long-awaited December policy decision will be the stand-out event. The European calendar gets underway at 07:45 GMT, with the publication of the French final November inflation data, followed by the Italian inflation data at 09:00 GMT.

The latest UK labor market data will be released at 09:30 GMT. September saw the unemployment rate drop to an 11-year low of 4.8% and, according to the latest MNI poll, the majority of analysts expect this to hold firm in October. EU industrial production data will cross the wire at 10:00 GMT.

Technical Overview

Layers of support are starting to accumulate on the hourlies which is less than ideal and hints at a bounce that sees the $1.0695 resistance tested. Bulls look for a close above $1.0695 to ease bearish pressure and hint at a move back to the 55-DMA ($1.0868). While $1.0695 caps bears retain focus on $1.0462-99 with a close below shifting focus to breaks of $1.0000 initially targeting $0.9850-80.

Spot Gold last is last up $2.55 at $1,161.10 per ounce, in a $1,1161.30 to $1,157.80 range so far this morning in Asia, with the market seeing a slight short-covering bid ahead of the FOMC later today, with the BOJ's surprise long-end purchases also giving the market slight support via a fall in US treasury yields. As to why gold remained on the defensive, Joni Teves, strategist at UBS, noted that "recent gold weakness coincides with nominal yields at the year's highs and real yields also creeping higher while U.S. equities hold at record levels." Also, there has been "selling pressure" in gold ETFs, she said. "

Source: www.centrofx.com