Today the focus is on a shift in Amazon management, COVID relief bill progress in the US, and the UK’s struggle to cope.
Calendar
12:00 UTC
Bank of England will announce the Interest Rate Decision for February. Forecast: 0.10%. A higher rate should be taken as a positive impulse for the GBP.
Assets to trade: GBP/NZD, AUD/GBP
13:30 UTC
US Initial Jobless Claims will be released. Forecast: 830K. A reading higher than forecast could give the USD a positive push.
Assets to trade: USD/JPY, EUR/USD, USD/CHF
News
Britain has asked for an extension until 2023 of a grace period on checks that would be conducted on trade moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom to soften the Brexit impact on the province, but the pair only agreed to a three-month period. Affects GBP
Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and become executive chairman, naming the head of its lucrative cloud computing division as successor. Affects Amazon
Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday took the first steps toward advancing President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid plan without Republican support. Affects S&P 500
Britain’s third national coronavirus lockdown has put the economy on course for a sharp contraction in early 2021, but services companies – buoyed by progress on vaccinations – are confident about recovery. Affects GBP
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling a meeting of top financial regulators this week to discuss market volatility driven by retail trading in shares of GameStop Corp, silver, and other stocks favored on social media, meeting to happen tomorrow. Affects NASDAQ
Technical Analysis
GBP/NZD
The UK is under pressure from various political, economic, and epidemic woes. Slowed economic growth, in the face of an unrelenting onslaught of new cases and variants, compounded by failed Brexit negotiations the GBP could contract. Especially, against its economic and epidemiological antithesis New Zealand inking new trade deals with a near-zero case count.
The Pound continues to fall, it could break the historical support line and drop further.
EUR/JPY
Approaching the historic support level of 126. The current downtrend will likely continue past the support level.
Gold
After seeing recent pullback the metal’s price is attempting to reflect off of the support level.
