Summary:

  • European benchmarks post modest gains

  • Chinese GDP accelerates

  • Data on oil inventories to be published in the afternoon

After a yesterday’s slowdown stock markets around the world resume their rally. Euro advances against USD in the absence of relevant data from the Eurozone. Swiss Franc gains against all major peers. Oil prices trade slightly to the upside ahead of the weekly supply report.

The long-awaited Chinese GDP data for the whole past year was finally released earlier today showing the higher than anticipated rate of growth which seems to confirm that the second-largest economy in the world has yet to witness a so-called ’hard landing’. The release could have been a reason behind a quick jump in the Hang Seng while the Australian dollar, being one of the most correlated major currency to the Chinese economy, stayed broadly muted.

This week has been very tough for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as their valuations plummeted. A major reason behind this sharp correction in Bitcoin prices is South Korea where a government reconsiders a full ban on exchanges. At the same time China is taking a tougher stance on cryptocurrencies as well.

European stock markets have begun the day higher taking cue from their counterparts from the US and Asia. After a bleak session yesterday moods have improved quite substantially at the start of trading despite the uninterruptedly strong common currency.

Looking around major FX pairs one may conclude that it was quite a calm session in Asia. The New Zealand is decisively the strongest currency gaining against the greenback a notch more than 0.2% even as there were no specific reasons standing behind such a move. In turn, the major attention was paid to the Australian economy due to the jobs report.

In today’s economic calendar we have some interesting figures scheduled for release from the US economy. In the early afternoon a data concerning US housing and labour market will take the spotlight as investors will look for further support for USD. Later on oil traders will analyze weekly government report the oil inventories.