Summary:

• Riksbank lowers inflation projections

• US inflation figures to be released in the afternoon

• European stocks resume recovery

Today is the long-awaited day as the US inflation figures are scheduled for release. Moreover, DOE report will be published in the evening thus increased volatility on oil may surface. Stock markets in Europe resumed recovery after yesterday’s weakness. NZD and JPY are the strongest currencies in the G10 basket while SEK underperforms following Riksbank meeting. Gold moves slightly higher.

The Swedish central bank left interest rates unchanged at today’s meeting matching market expectations. At the same time it decided to slash inflation projections quite noticeably but the first rate increase is still forecast to be in the second half of the year.

Wednesday could be a big day for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well as two subcommittees in the US House of Representative are scheduled to discuss potential applications for the blockchain technology in the government.

European benchmarks follow into their US and Chinese peers posting significant gains during the opening. The gains are additionally fueled by the solid corporate earnings reports. As the markets await US inflation data European investors assess the preliminary GDP prints from EMU countries.

The Japanese currency has stolen the show of late as it’s been one of the strongest currency among majors in the early trading. A larger jolt came in yesterday being chiefly fueled by the US dollar weakness. However, the Swiss franc saw increased demand as well, the euro was higher yesterday too.

Looking at Wednesday calendar we can see a vast array of important macro releases. European economies have released their preliminary GDP prints in the morning. In the early afternoon pack of data from the US will steal the show while DOE report on crude oil inventories will draw attention of oil traders in the evening.