December USD Index futures are back in the green for this early U.S. session. Several jobs reports were released earlier, which have prompted little response from currency traders. Continuing Jobless Claims (Nov. 30) came in at 1.661M, lagging expectations and the previous release. However, Initial Jobless Claims (Dec. 7) outperformed expectations and late November’s stats, falling to 206K.

With the December FED meeting under a week away, there is growing media skepticism toward a 25 bps rate hike being a foregone conclusion. The CME FedWatch Index has been all over the place this week and currently estimates an 80% chance of December rate hike taking place. No matter the grumblings over recent stock market volatility, traders and investors are expecting the FED to tighten next Wednesday.

December USD Index Futures

After some early session pain, the December USD Index is back in the green. Rates are above 97.000 and appear poised to make another run at yearly highs.

Here are the levels to watch for the remainder of the session:

• Resistance(1): Yearly High, 97.530
• Support(1): Bollinger MP, 96.730
• Support(2): Daily SMA, 96.700

Overview: Thus far, it is anyone’s ballgame for the USD Index. Bulls and bears are slugging it out near 2018’s high, with the long-term uptrend intact. For the time being, I maintain a bullish bias toward the USD Index in anticipation of next week’s FED meeting.