Markets subdued despite Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue proposal - 15.1.2021

The Dollar strengthening has resumed currently ahead of US retail sales report at 14:30 CET today. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, slipped 0.1% Thursday as US Labor Department reported 965 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, up from 784 thousand the previous week.

GBP/USD resumed climbing Thursday while EUR/USD continued sliding as the German economy shrank by 5% in 2020, slightly beating the -5.1% forecast. Both euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. AUD/USD resumed advancing yesterday while USD/JPY reversed its climbing with both yen and Australian dollar lower against the greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are lower currently. Wall Street ended lower yesterday. Federal Reserve’s chair Powell said talk of tapering bond buying is premature while President-elect Biden proposed to spend extra $1.9 trillions, calling also for extending national eviction moratorium through September 2021. The three main US stock benchmarks closed lower with losses ranging from 0.1% to 0.4%.

European stock indexes are down today after ending higher Thursday led by travel and leisure stocks. Asian indexes are mixed today with Hoing Kong’s Hang Seng index leading gainers despite reports the Trump administration added nine Chinese firms to the Pentagon's list of companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military..