Summary:

  • UK headline inflation remains unchanged

  • European stocks fall under pressure

  • Bitcoin retreats towards $8500 mark

Tuesday’s trading lookss calm overall yet we have seen some interesting moves already. Yen is the strongest currency among G10 group after strengthening suddenly in the second half of Asian session. On the other hand, CAD is the weakest currency within G10 basket. Upbeat session in the US and moderately bullish one in Asia did not spur optimism to Europe where major stock benchmarks are posting declines. Gold is trading higher as USD underperforms. Oil prices fall slightly ahead of weekly API report.

While UK headline inflation remained unchanged in January core price growth sped at quite notably at the same time, both readings exceeded forecasts coming from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. As a result, the British pound saw a knee-jerk increase and found itself among the top three best performing currencies within the G10 basket.

Bitcoin price action has been quite calm of late but it seems that the price has already surrendered its gains. Do notice that the most famous virtual currency is trading below a lower boundary of an ascending channel which could suggest some fatigue of Bitcoin bulls.

Following gains seen on Wall Street yesterday major stock benchmarks from Asia advanced today. However, Japanese shares underperformed against its peers on the back of the yen strengthening. Mixed opening in Europe eases region’s rebound in stocks.

After the tumultuous week the US indices seem to have gotten back some of its lost appeal. Among possible reasons standing behind a surge seen on Wall Street was a $4.4 trillion budget plan for fiscal 2019 unveiled by President Donald Trump yesterday.

Looking at Tuesday’s calendar one can see that UK inflation print that is probably the most important reading scheduled for today is already behind us. However, there are two other interesting prints due today. Oil traders will turn their attention to weekly API report in the evening. Overnight Japanese preliminary GDP release for Q4 2017 is about to be published.