The US dollar held steady against most major currencies today, as markets are anticipating new updates and developments on the US-China trade file, in addition to anticipation for the US Federal Reserve meeting later this week.

Chinese trade officials stressed that contacts between the US and China are continuing to bring views closer and pave the way for signing the phase one of the trade deal.

Dollar was buoyed last week by the US jobs report, after it revealed that the economy has added 266K new jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% (50-year low).

The US Federal Reserve will launch it meeting tomorrow and will continue until Wednesday, with most forecasts are for the bank to hold interest rates at 1.7% unchanged.

Fed Governor, Jerome Powell, and his colleagues hinted earlier that the Fed will hold the US monetary policy in the near-term to assess the three rate cuts of this year.

The dollar index held against a basket of major currencies at 97.6 points as of 19:42 GMT, and hit an intraday high of 97.7 and a low of 97.5.

Most US stocks faltered on Monday, as investors await new updates and developments on the US-China trade file, in addition to anticipation for the US Federal Reserve meeting later this week.

Markets are waiting for any tangible results from the trade talks between the US and China amid renewed fears over the tariffs war, which negatively affects global markets.

The US Department of Labor revealed last week that the economy has added 266K new jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% (50-year low).

The US Federal Reserve will launch it meeting tomorrow and will continue until Wednesday, which will be followed by the interest rate decision and statement.

As for stocks, Dow Jones slipped less than 0.1% or 26 points to 27,988, while Nasdaq rose by 0.2% or 16 points to 8,673, and S&P 500 rose by 1 point to 3,147.

The US dollar fell during the European session on Monday, to resume its losses, after pausing on Friday within recovery attempts from a 4-week low, after the release of weak Chinese data that renewed concerns about the impact of the ongoing trade war between the US and China.

The dollar index lost more than 0.1% to 97.56 points, after opening at 97.68, and hit an intraday high of 97.72.

The index rose by 0.3% on Friday, its first gain in the last 7 days, and the largest since Nov.22, within its recovery from a 4-week low of 97.36 points.

Those gains were buoyed by robust US jobs data, which reduced the odds for the US Fed to cut the interest rates for the fourth time this year.

The US Department of Labor revealed on Friday that the economy has added 266K new jobs in November, more than forecasts of 181K jobs, and higher than October's revised reading of 156K from 128K new jobs. 

During last week, the dollar index lost 0.6%, posting its first weekly loss in the last 3 weeks, after weak manufacturing and services data in the US.

Chinese exports fell for the fourth straight month in November by 1.1% compared to last year, lower than forecasts of a rise by 1%, which renewed concerns about the impact of the ongoing trade war between the US and China.

Brent prices remained lower as the US market opened on Monday to surrender a 3-month high and head to the first daily loss in the last 6 days on profit-taking and slowdown concerns after the release of weak Chinese exports data, but losses are ebbed by a drop in US drilling activities and renewed hopes about a trade deal between the US and China.

Brent crude fell to $63.64 a barrel, after opening at $64.34, with a high of $64.40.

Brent futures gained 1.7% on Friday and posted a 3-month high of $64.86.

Those gains were achieved after the OPEC-Plus coalition announced on Friday agreeing on further output cuts by about 500K barrels per day until the end of next March.

In the new agreement the total production cut between OPEC and the independent producers amount to 1.7 million bpd, around 1.7% of global production and will be implemented only within 3 months, and didn't pledge any new measures for after the end of March 2020.

OPEC-Plus also decided to hold an extraordinary general meeting in March 2020, to review the production policy and assess the extent to which the new cut would be more effective.

Goldman Sachs said "this decision reflects an important shift in strategy to managing short-term imbalances rather than trying to correct long-term imbalances through open-ended commitments".

During the last week, oil prices gained 6.5%, their fourth straight weekly gain and the largest weekly since mid-September, after the new OPEC agreement and a surprise drop in US crude inventories.

Chinese government revealed today that exports fell for the fourth straight month in November, which renewed concerns about the impact of the ongoing trade war between the US and China.