Market Focus Shifts to February’s US Employment Report

The USD edged higher against its counterparts on Friday as some degree of uncertainty about the US CPI rates for January, which are to be released tomorrow, seems to remain and puzzles market participants. It should be noted that the preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment indicator for February was on the rise, which may have provided also some slight support for the greenback as it would imply a greater degree of optimism on behalf of the average US consumer. North of the US border, the CAD rallied against the USD as January’s employment data were surprisingly better than expected, allowing for the market to expect that BoC’s hawkishness is to be maintained. Across the Atlantic, the release of the UK GDP rates for Q4 and especially for December on a month-on-month basis may be worrying pound traders given the wide contraction of the UK economy for the last month of the past year. Pound traders are expected to be quite busy this week as a number of high-impact financial data are due out and could shake the pound. Across the continents, the Yen weakened against the USD on Friday and during today’s Asian session, as the expected new BoJ Governor Ueda is not expected to proceed with a radical overhaul of the bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy. Overall, today in the European and American session, a more easy-going mood is anticipated and we expect fundamentals to take over, given the low number of high-impact financial releases stemming from Europe and North America, keeping market volatility relatively contained.

横跨大西洋，鉴于英国经济在过去一年的最后一个月大幅萎缩，第四季度英国国民生产总值率尤其12月份的发布可能令英镑交易者感到担忧. 预计英镑交易者在本周非常忙碌，因为一些高影响力的金融发布将出台可能会使英镑震荡.

在各大洲, 周五和今天亚洲时段，日元兑美元走弱, 因为预计新日本央行行长Ueda不会对央行的超宽松货币政策进行彻底改革. 总的来说, 在今天欧洲和美国时段, 市场较轻松，鉴于来自欧洲和北美的高影响力的金融发布数量较少，我们预计基本面因素将占主导

今日其他亮点:

在轻松的周一，我们注意到在欧洲时段发布的1月份瑞士消费物价指数率，在美国时段货币方面, 达拉斯联储主席Logan, 费城联储主席Harker 和纽约联储主席Williams 定于发言. 在周二亚洲时段, 我们注意到2月份澳大利亚消费者情绪以及1月份商业条件和商业乐观指标的发布，同时预计重点是第四季度日本国民生产总值率.

本周

On Tuesday, we get UK’s employment data for December, Norway’s and Eurozone’s GDP rates for Q4, while the highlight of the day is expected to be the US CPI rates for January, which could set the tone for broader market expectations. On Wednesday we get UK’s CPI rates for January, Eurozone’s industrial production for December and the US retail sales growth rate for January. On Thursday we note from Japan the release of the trade data for January and the machinery orders growth rate for December, while from Australia we get January’s employment data and in the American session from the US we note the release of the Philly Fed Business index for February, the weekly initial jobless claims figure and January’s PPI rates. Finally, on an easy-going Friday, we note the release of the UK retail sales growth rate for January.