Summary:

• SEK dips following inflation miss

• Bitcoin flirts with $11.5k

• European stocks pare early gains

With economic calendar being almost empty Tuesday’s trading session is set to be calm. However, things may change in the afternoon as US stock markets will open after prolonged weekend. USD is the strongest currency in the G10 basket today while SEK performs the worst after disappointing inflation reading. Gold and silver trade lower on the back of USD strengthening.

In defiance of expectations Swedish inflation disappointed in January mainly on the back of a huge decrease in clothing and footwear prices. The data cuts back on odds to see the first hike later this year as the Riksbank has outlined recently. As a result, the SEK is tumbling over 1.1% against the greenback being, however, fuelled by relative US dollar strength seen today.

Over the course of the past hours Bitcoin managed to close above a $11k mark for the first time this month, which seems to bode well for buyers going forward. There were no concrete reasons behind a rally, so one may suspect that a technical analysis is still playing a major role.

European stock benchmarks opened higher on Tuesday as investors assess earnings from some giants like HSBC. Senior UK officials fear that the post-Brexit trade deal negotiated with EU will not be legally binding. Therefore they consider halting Brexit payments in case the negotiations goes wrong or EU fails keep its promises.

US traders are back after a holiday on Monday and it could be conducive to the greenback which is trading broadly higher in the morning. Rises are quite widespread as the USD is up ca. 0.2% against all its major peers except for the Australian dollar.

After a calm Monday in terms of macro releases came rather calm Tuesday. We do not have many top-tier readings scheduled for today. In the afternoon preliminary consumer confidence print for Eurozone will take the stage and EU finance ministers will meet to discuss issues related to the EU budget.