Summary:

  • UK services PMI misses forecasts

  • Bitcoin resumes selloff

  • Pessimism on the global stock markets prevails

Global stock markets launched the week on the back foot as continuation of declines can be seen in Asia and Europe. Japanese yen is a top mover in the FX market while the GBP stays under pressure. Bitcoin has been hit by another wave of heavy selling today. Gold prices advance modestly while the oil retreats.

UK services PMI unexpectedly slid from 54.2 to 53 in January while economists surveyed by Bloomberg had foreshadowed just a tiny decrease to 54.1. Taking into account other PMIs for the same period (manufacturing and construction) and underlining that the services sector is the most crucial one in the British economy one may argue that the BoE could have a hard nut to crack when it meets on Thursday.

After the abrupt rebound which came out of the blue on Friday’s afternoon Bitcoin has resumed its slide in early European trading. Bitcoin was even able to breach $9400 during the weekend but it finally came back to a downtrend. From a technical point of view buyers are not positioned well as the price respected a key short-term technical level placed at $9350.

The negotiators have failed to provide a coalition deal by the self-imposed deadline that has passed on Sunday entering a two day period reserved for the extension of the talks. The two main issues left to discuss are tighter rules on temporary work contracts and the overhaul in the national health-care system.

The US dollar is trading flat despite the excellent labour market report on Friday, it’s worth noticing here that the greenback was able to retain just a part of the post-NFP gains. In terms of the macroeconomic data we got two prints of services PMIs from Australia which were equivocal sending a mixed message to the Reserve Bank of Australia holding its meeting tomorrow.

Today’s economic calendar is dominated by the services PMI prints from all over the world. Apart from that, it is worth to note that during this week FX market may be steered by the central banks as BoE, RBA and RBNZ are about to hold their meetings.