European markets are remaining under pressure as most bourses are trading in the negative territory following the weaker Asian session. In the currency sector, Swiss franc is continuing its downfall losing 0.56 percent. Swedish krona is adding the most in the G10 basket, inching 0.92 percent on Q2 GDP growth of 1.7 percent versus 0.9 percent consensus along with a huge beat in retail sales.

The Swiss currency remains the worst performing in G10. That scheme took place in the past two days. A rush in selling the CHF could stem partly from the SNB’s meddling in the FX market as the central bank warned a few days ago that the CHF was getting more overvalued.

During Asian session we saw a bunch of data from Japan which was quite mixed. First and foremost, inflation readings were more or less in line with expectations, it means there are a long way off the BoJ’s objective. National CPI came in at 0.4% yoy (cons. 0.4% yoy), core CPI stripping out fresh food amounted to the same value which was consistent with the forecast, whereas ’super-core’ gauge which excludes fresh food and energy prices turned out to be flat, against the estimation at -0.1% yoy.

In the political front, Republican leaders said on Thursday that the proposed border-adjusted tax (BAT) won’t be part of negotiations on how to overhaul the U.S. tax code. Let us recall that that change in taxes was one of the most famous, albeit contentious at the same time.

As an earning season is in a full swing, Adidas AG (ADS.DE) boosted its full year outlook after higher margins helped the German sportswear maker to achieve an 18 percent jump in second-quarter operating profit. The stock is the only one trading in the green adding a staggering 8.56 percent on the reports.

In the economic releases today, the most important is scheduled at 1:30 pm BST as we will know how the US economy has performed during Q2 while German CPI rose from 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent in a yearly basis in June against a forecast indicated a deceleration to 1.5 percent q/q. Higher inflation could offer the ECB more tolerance with regard to the higher euro, but that tolerance might be contained after all. There is guesswork that a rise in the EUR by 10% could give rise to a decline in inflation by more or less 0.4/0.5 pp. That’s the reason why the ECB could stay vigilant if the euro strengthens too much and too quickly.