Morning wrap (18.01.2021)

• Stocks in Asia are traded mostly lower at the beginning of a new week. Nikkei dropped almost 1%, S&P/ASX 200 finished around 0.8% lower and Kospi declined 2.5%. Indices from China gained

• DAX futures point to a slightly lower opening of the European cash session

• Chinese GDP expanded 6.5% YoY in Q4 2020 (exp. 6.1% YoY). In spite of coronavirus pandemic, China has managed to expand its economy in 2020 by 2.3%

• Chinese industrial production increased 7.3% YoY in December (exp. 6.8%). retail sales rose 4.6% YoY (exp. 5.5%) and urban investment were 2.9% YoY higher (exp. 3.2%)

• CAD is trading lower after media reported that Joe Biden may remove permit for Keystone XL pipeline during his first day in the office

• Some reports surfaced saying that European Union will work to reduce reliance on the US dollar

• Total coronavirus case count exceeded 95 million over the weekend. 68 million people have recovered while 2.04 million have died since the beginning of a pandemic

• Bitcoin is trading near $35,000

• Precious metals trade higher with silver and platinum being top movers. Oil trades flat

• USD and JPY are top moving major currencies while CAD, AUD and NZD lag the most

Total coronavirus case count exceeded 95 million over the weekend. Source: worldometers, XTB