Top daily news
Forex news
The Dollar strengthening continues currently ahead of Fed chair Powell speech at a Princeton University webinar scheduled to start at 18:30 CET. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, added 0.3% Wednesday as core inflation rate in US remained at 1.6% over year - in line with expectations, while US December budget deficit ticked down to $143.6 billion after $145.3 billion in November.
Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed their climbing yesterday despite Destatis reported Germany’s Wholesale Price Index rose 0.6% over month in December when a steady gain of 0.1% was expected. Both Euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. AUD/USD reversed its climbing yesterday while USD/JPY reversed its sliding with both Australian dollar and yen higher against the Greenback currently.
Stock Market news
The US stock futures are mixed currently with President-elect Biden due to announce his economic plans today. The three main US stock indexes ended mixed Wednesday, booking returns ranging from -0.1% to +0.4% with Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report indicating "economic activity increased modestly" in most regions of the US and employment rose, albeit slowly.
European stock indexes are up currently after a mixed session Wednesday with lockdowns in Germany expected to last a further 8 to 10 weeks as Angela Merkel warned after Netherlands extended them on Tuesday. Asian stock indexes are mixed today with Shanghai Composite down as US bolstered a ban on American investments in Chinese companies deemed to be linked with the military by clarifying that American investors cannot own them after November 2021.