USD/CAD ends a seven-session slide and gold closes back above $4,000

The dollar closed higher against all seven majors on our feed as traders bought it before Wednesday's Federal Reserve decision, FXStreet said, and USD/CAD ended a run of seven lower closes. Gold closed back above $4,000 as oil eased from a five-month high.

Dollar buying before the Fed

• USD/JPY rose 0.42% to 157.498, the dollar's biggest gain of the seven, and FXStreet said the rise won back about half of what the pair lost over 22 and 23 October. It still closed 0.2 pips under 157.50, its third close in a row below that level. Brown Brothers Harriman expects the Bank of Japan to hold at 1.25% on Friday.

• EUR/USD fell 0.26% to 1.11738, its fourth lower close in a row and its lowest close since 14 October. ING said Germany's Ifo index rose for a sixth month to 90.2, its highest in more than three years, yet FXStreet said the pair was back below its pre-release level within the hour, and dollar buying before the Fed then took it lower.

• French yields retreated from their highest since 2002 after Moody's held France's rating, Investing.com said. Brown Brothers Harriman said the European Central Bank was expected to hold at 2.50% on Thursday.

• The pound fell 0.25% to 1.33416, its lowest close since 19 October and less than a pip above 1.3341, the Action Forex line it has now closed above for five sessions in a row. Its low, 1.33276 at 13:59 UTC, was its first trade below that line since 20 October, and held above 1.3294, the support Action Forex's daily outlook now watches. FXStreet said it was flat against the euro, so the drop came from dollar buying before the Fed.

Oil, gold and the loonie

• WTI opened the week with a gap lower and fell further after Al Jazeera reported Trump saying "there will not be a strike today" on Iran; by European hours it had fallen from Friday's five-month high of $103.28 to near $100 as investors turned cautious before the central-bank decisions, FXStreet said. Later, investingLive reported, citing Fars, that security chiefs from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey agreed in Tehran to continue talks.

• Gold rose 0.30% to $4,011.69 on our feed, back above $4,000 after Friday's close below it. It dipped under that line in every hour until 04:00 UTC and again between 13:00 and 15:00 UTC, with a low of $3,977.94 at 01:03 UTC. FXStreet tied the recovery to lower energy prices on hopes of US-Iran de-escalation, while TD Securities said gold's long-term bull case was being challenged around $4,000.

• USD/CAD rose 0.07% to 1.40121, its first higher close after seven lower ones, as traders repositioned before the Fed and Bank of Canada decisions, FXStreet said. Its low, 1.39984 at 01:18 UTC, held above 1.3985 and its high, 1.40556, stayed below 1.4080: it closed between the two Action Forex levels our weekly wrap set. investingLive said Prime Minister Mark Carney's remark that Canada had not budged in US trade talks, and a Semafor report, made a US trade deal look less imminent than claimed and removed part of the deal optimism built into the loonie.

• Brown Brothers Harriman expects a 25 basis-point Bank of Canada hike to 2.50% on Wednesday; Rabobank and TD Securities expect a hold at 2.25%.

• AUD/USD fell 0.27% to 0.70166 after a one-month high early in the session, FXStreet said, and still closed above 0.70 for a fifth session in a row. NZD/USD fell 0.34% to 0.56811 even after TD Securities moved to expect a 25 basis-point Reserve Bank of New Zealand hike to 3% on Wednesday.

Market gauges and what's next

Our proprietary metrics at the close of the session:

• Readings: an MRS of 61, from 74 at Friday's close: its volatility (ATR) component fell to 11 from 22 and positioning to 6 from 8, with news at its full 20. A CTS of 54 with its carry backdrop at 60 out of 100, and an FSI of 58, Neutral.

• Top of our strength table: no clear leader. The yen spent the most minutes in first place, 237 of the session's 1,376, or 17%, just ahead of the euro on 215, on a day it lost more to the dollar than any other major: the table counts minutes in each place, not the session's net move.

• Bottom: no currency clearly trailed.

• The dollar: it closed higher against all seven majors, from 0.07% against the Canadian dollar to 0.42% against the yen, yet it was seventh on minutes in first place, with 126.

This week: the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada and the RBNZ decide on Wednesday, the ECB on Thursday and the Bank of Japan on Friday, Action Forex said, and the UK budget is due on Wednesday too, according to investingLive. The Conference Board's US consumer confidence index is due at 14:00 UTC on Tuesday, with a forecast of 81.2.