Summary:

  • Solid outlook for Germany confirmed by ZEW indices

  • South Korea bans anonymous trading accounts

  • API report to take the spotlight in the evening

In terms of macro data or market events Tuesday looks rather calm. European benchmarks advance amid optimism seen in the other parts of the world, especially US as companies post solid earnings. JPY remains the strongest currency from G10 basket. Brent is trading rather flat, while WTI decline slightly. Gold moves slightly higher.

The ZEW Institute released its January’s surveys on the current and future economic situation according to German companies. Both indices turned out to be overwhelmingly higher compared to expectations reaffirming the solid performance of the European economy.

Bitcoin failed to break above its crucial resistance during the yesterday’s session while South Korea could have been among reasons behind the price underperformance. Notice that the country released a long-awaited decision with regard to cryptocurrency trading on Tuesday saying that the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading will be banned from 30 January.

US stock indices reached new all-time highs following solid earnings posted by companies and the end of government shutdown. Asian equities rose amid optimism in the US as well as BoJ Governor Kuroda remarks. In Europe DAX opened higher reaching an all-time highs.

In spite of the fact that the Bank of Japan chose to keep all its monetary policy settings unchanged, the yen along with the domestic stock market gained quite noticeably. Notice that there were some assumptions that GDP and inflation outlook could be raised, however they did not and despite that we saw a jump in the Japanese currency which could be a bit misleading.

In today’s economic calendar we do not have many readings scheduled for release. In the afternoon USD traders may want to pay attention to Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index. In the evening oil traders will look at weekly API report for hints ahead of official government data.