Summary:

• Ripple gains on the back of the new partnership announcement

• In Germany CDU and SPD are to negotiate a coalition government

• US retail sale and inflation figures to take the spotlight today

Long-awaited day by the USD traders as the US inflation and retail sales figures are scheduled for release in the early afternoon. European benchmarks post moderate gains despite stronger euro. Antipodean currencies remain on the back foot. Oil prices are about to mark fourth straight week of gains.

Over the course of the past hours Ripple decisively stole the show across the most traded digital currencies. On top of that we had relative calmness without any hectic moves. Notice that Bitcoin is still trading below a $14k mark while a technical analysis seems to suggest that bulls could struggle to come back to the market in a more spectacular way.

The European equity markets experienced quite the ugly performance on Thursday partly on the back of a surge seen in the single currency. The euro gained momentum as the ECB’s account illustrated that the Governing Council could adjust its forward guidance at the beginning of the new year. That said, one may expect that some more hawkish references will be already included in the January’s statement.

The Asian session brought a slight retreat seen in the commodity-related currencies such as CAD, NZD and AUD. Nevertheless all of them experienced hefty gains over the past days mainly driven by another increase in the commodity block as well as the stellar employment report from Canada published a week ago.

Later on today probably the most important figures of the week are going to be released. US CPI and retail sales data are awaited by the investors as they expect it may support USD and give it second life after the latest weakness. Apart from that central bankers from Fed, ECB and Riksbank are scheduled to deliver their speeches today.