Market Update

The U.S. Dollar (USD) rose on Thursday against the Japanese Yen (JPY), despite declining against other major currencies, amid an improved risk appetite and reduced demand for safe havens. The USD/JPY pair is trading higher for the day by 0.12% at 104.240. Earlier today, the pair traded as high as …

European stocks closed Thursday on a higher note, bouncing back from losses registered earlier in today’s session, on the back of positive financial disclosures and an improved risk appetite. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose by 0.1%, after falling by as much as 2% earlier. The French benchmark index CAC40 …

The U.S. Dollar (USD) returned to losses on Thursday, falling against major currencies, amid an improvement in risk appetite among investors. Markets seem to be absorbing the outcomes of the latest United States Federal Reserve policy statement, which included no changes to its current easing measurements to help the American …

Natural gas inventories in the United States decreased last week by 128 Bcf, according to estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Working natural gas in storage registered 2,881 Bcf as of Friday, January 22, 2021. On an annual basis, natural gas stockpiles rose by 78 Bcf, and are …

The sales of new single-family houses in the United States registered a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 842,000 during December 2020, initial data jointly-released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed on Thursday. The reading indicates a 1.6% rise compared with the …

Canadian building permits declined in value by 4.1% during December, data by Statistics Canada showed on Thursday. The decline comes below market expectations of a 5% decrease. On an annual basis, building permits decreased to an unadjusted reading of 2.3% last year compared with 2019, but rose by 3.1% compared …

Inflation in Germany, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), came at 0.8% in January, according to the flash estimate of Destatison Thursday. Moreover, the annual CPI rose to 1% from -0.3% in December.

There were 847,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending January 23, the data published by the US Department of Labor showed on Thursday. This reading followed the previous print of 914,000 and came in better than the market estimates of 875,000.

The United States’ Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 4% in the fourth quarter, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis’ advance estimate showed on Thursday. This reading followed the 33.4% growth recorded in the third quarter and came in line with analysts’ estimates.

The most prominent event on the US calendar today is the fourth-quarter GDP report due out at 13:30 GMT. Economists are expecting the preliminary figure to show 3.9% year-on-year growth in the October-December period, which indicates growth losing momentum by a large margin compared to the strong recovery in Q4 …