The US dollar inched lower against most major rivals amid calm trading as Wall Street returns from the Christmas holiday, but some markets were still closed around the world. 

Investors are now preparing for the New Year holiday, which would entail a reorganization of their investment portfolios, and maybe liquidation of some assets.

Earlier US data showed unemployment claims fell by a thousand last week to 219 thousand, while analysts expected 223 thousand.

On trading, the dollar index inched 0.1% lower as of 17:29 GMT to 108.3, with a session-high at 108.3, and a low at 108.1.

Loonie

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.1% against its US counterpart as of 17:40 GMT to 0.6939.

Aussie 

The Australian dollar slipped 0.3% against its US counterpart as of 17:$0 GMT to 0.622.

US stock indices inched down mildly on Thursday as Wall Street resumed operations after yesterday’s holiday, but some markets were still closed in Europe. 

Investors are now preparing for the New Year holiday, which would entail a reorganization of their investment portfolios, and maybe liquidating some assets.

Earlier US data showed unemployment claims fell by a thousand last week to 219 thousand, while analysts expected 223 thousand.

On trading, Dow Jones fell 0.2% as of 15:44 GMT, or 95 points to 43,202 points, while NASDAQ fell 0.2%, or 12 points to 6027 points, as NASDAQ gave up 0.2%, or 37 points to 19,994 points.

Palladium prices fell on Thursday as the dollar inched lower against most major rivals, amid calm trading during the holiday season.

The Nornickel corporation, the world’s biggest producer of nickel and palladium, expected a nickel surplus of 150 thousand tons worldwide in 2024-2025.

And it expects the palladium market to be mostly balanced in 2024, and completely balanced in 2024, with the nickel surplus mostly due to the increase in supplies of Chinese nickel cathodes. 

While Nornickel isn’t under direct western sanctions, the sanctions on Russia pushed western producers away from Russian metals, which forced Nornickel to divert its sales to Asia.

The industrial metal palladium is currently heading to a yearly modest loss.

Palladium hit a record high in March 2020 after passing $3000 in response to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Otherwise, the dollar index was little changed at 108.2 as of 15:14 GMT, with a session-high at 108.3, and a low at 108.1

On trading, palladium March futures fell 2% as of 15:14 GMT to $934.5 an ounce.

The US and other European countries including Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and other markets such as the Australian and New Zealand markets were closed for Christmas today.

Both the stock and bond markets are shut down and will resume operations tomorrow, on Thursday.