Summary:

• Benchmarks from Wall Street set fresh all-time highs

• UK construction PMI misses forecasts

• Bitcoin gains as big investor enters board

 First trading session of the year on Wall Street resulted sent benchmarks to new all-time highs. Euro eases after recent rally. Dollar gains against most of the major currencies. Crude oil prices remain steady in vicinity of multi-year highs. Gold slows down after reaching 3-month highs.

The currency market has been remarkably benign during the Asian session with the British pound slightly outperforming its major peers. Apart from it, the euro has remained well above 1.20 against the US dollar while commodity-related currencies such as AUD, NZD or CAD have retreated subtly. 

The first trading session of the year on Wall Street sent indices to the new highs driven by technological stocks. Asian equities followed their US peers extending gains from yesterday. European stocks rose at the opening for the first time in four days following implementation of the MiFiD II rules however these gains have partially evaporated.

Trading on major cryptocurrencies was quite calm during the Asian session given volatility and a range of moves occurring there. Bitcoin was the most volatile which could have been sparked by a Wall Street Journal’s article pointing to the big investor entering BTC board.

The British currency has had prosperous time of late mainly on the back of the declining US dollar, however some soft indicators suggest that the domestic economy could have had somewhat disappointing end of the past year. Both manufacturing and construction PMIs slid in December falling short of the consensuses at the same time.

We still have data from the US economy scheduled for release later today. In the afternoon ISM manufacturing print will be published, whilst in the evening FOMC Meeting Minutes will draw investors attention to the monetary stance of the central bankers.