Sterling surged against the euro yesterday and has maintained those gains this morning following a more ‘dovish’ stance from the European Central Bank. Tuesday’s strong unemployment data also contributed to the pound’s strength. Against the greenback, the pound also remains strong after hitting above $1.23 for the first time since December 14th yesterday. This was largely due to Britain’s CPI report revealing the UK’s inflation rate slowed to 10.5% in December.
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For the first time ever, joint strike action between NHS nurses and ambulance staff will take place. The strike, which is set to cause massive disruption to hospitals and emergency services across England and Wales, will take place on 6 February.
The latest ZEW indicator of economic sentiment for the Euro Area climbed by 40.3 points to 16.7 in January. This pointed to a bounce back into more optimistic territory for the first time in over 12 months, since February last year.
In European stock markets, some stocks closed slightly higher yesterday, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 holding its place at a 9-month high. This was largely due to investors welcoming positive earnings updates, in addition to signs of easing inflationary pressures.
There are several interesting data releases scheduled in for the USA today following yesterday’s retail sales and PPI. A key one to watch will be building permits at lunchtime. In the previous release, the data revealed that building permits in the United States tumbled 10.6% to 1.351m in November 2022. This was the lowest level since June 2020 however, today markets are expecting that number to edge up slightly to 1.4m.
