European markets were higher across the board on Tuesday, feeding off of positive Eurozone GDP and inflation numbers. The Eurozone GDP rose 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 and Eurozone inflation hits highest level since February 2013. The figures from Eurostat also revealed that unemployment in the euro area fell to 9.6% in December, the lowest rate since May 2009.
In terms of the charts, there was little reaction in the EUR/USD exchange rate to the data as traders took the view that the ECB is unlikely to respond to it by loosening monetary policy near-term. However, the Euro did jump later after US President Donald Trump's trade advisor told the Financial Times newspaper that Germany was benefiting from a “grossly undervalued”.
Meanwhile Sterling is poised for its best January in five years while US dollar heads for worst January since 2008. The Dollar index dipped below the 100 mark for the first time in five days in a market dominated by Trump’s policies.
One of the biggest movers on the FTSE on Tuesday was grocery retailer which jumped by more than 7% after the company reported an upbeat set of results for its fiscal 2016 with double-digit revenue growth.
Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported a surprise rise in pretax profit. Pretax profit rose following five consecutive quarters of falling profits, to 7.4 billion crowns (670.72 million pounds).
Looking ahead to Wednesday, there’s China’s NBS manufacturing PMI, the UK’s Nationwide house price index and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. On the corporate side – there’s TalkTalk, Centamin and Facebook.
--- Written by Katie Pilbeam, DailyFX
