Summary:

• Norwegian krone under pressure after disappointing inflation data

• Sell-off stormed US and Asian stock markets

• Canadian labour market figures to be released in the early afternoon

After rout on the US stock market resumed yesterday Asian equities plunged during the last trading session of the week. European benchmarks fall moderately. NOK is the weakest currency amid G10 basket after disappointing inflation data while Antipodean currencies lead the gains. Gold and oil prices decline.

The Norwegian krone is currently the weakest currency in the G10 basket following a lacklustre reading of inflation for January. Even quite strong GDP growth for the fourth quarter of the past year turned out to be not enough to offset inflationary disappointment.

Over the course of the past hours Bitcoin was remarkably calm as there were no reports which could have influenced the digital currency substantially. As a result, the price failed to break above $8500 and came back below a $8000 mark.

As some may have thought that the stocks have already turned the corner another strong selloff stormed US equity market. Amid declines seen on the other continents benchmarks from Europe opened slightly lower. Travel and utilities sectors are among the biggest underperforms while the chemicals stocks lead the gains.

The final session in Asia did not bring long-awaited relief as major equity markets witnessed a huge sell-off taking cue from their US counterparts. Let’s pin down that US stocks had another hideous day with the Dow Jones plunging as much as 4.15%, other indices saw massive falls as well, the SP500 plummeted 3.75% and the NASDAQ dropped 3.9%.

The remaining Friday’s economic calendar is almost empty as European industrial production prints have been already released in the morning. In the early afternoon Canadian labour market figures are going to be released thus an increased volatility on the FX pairs tied to CAD may spur.