Commodity Surge Fuels NOK, AUD Strength

The reflationary cycle persisted Wednesday, with commodity contracts from copper to crude all registering fresh cycle highs. This helped boost commodity-tied currencies into the Wednesday close, prompting NOK, AUD and CAD to outperform. The longevity of the commodity rally was backed up by the move back above the $50/bbl mark for across the WTI futures curve.

• The reflationary theme bled from commodities in haven FX, with both JPY and CHF trading particularly poorly despite the unimpressive showing from equity markets.
• Early strength in GBP faded into the Wednesday close, as markets heeded the sharp overbought technical conditions. This prompted GBP to eye a middling finish despite hitting new multi-year highs against the EUR and USD early Wednesday.
• Focus Thursday turns to weekly US jobless claims numbers, GDP data for Q4, durable goods orders and pending home sales. The speaker schedule includes ECB's Lane, de Cos and de Guindos and Fed's Bostic, Bullard, Quarles and Williams.