- Investors' attention at the beginning of Thursday's trading session is on the Japanese yen. Japan's currency is strongly gaining in value and breaking out below an important support point, which may indicate a breakdown of the existing upward trend on the USDJPY pair.
- Interestingly, however, these movements are not dictated by any information/message that could trigger such behavior of the currency. A noteworthy aspect, however, is the spread in yields between 10-year US and Japanese debt securities, which, as a correlated indicator, had been putting pressure on the currency pair for some time.
- From Australia, we learned of the January employment report, which turned out to be very strong, with the number of jobs added more than double the median forecast. While the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points, the labor force participation rate reached an all-time high, as did the number of jobs.
- The People's Bank of China again left its 1- and 5-year interest rates unchanged at 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively.
- In the US, news of the willingness to transfer 20% of the savings from the DOGE department's cuts to additional benefits for Americans and a similar amount to pay down the federal debt proved to be a gripping topic. Trump also mentioned improving the state of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), as well as imposing 20% tariffs on timber and wood products.
- Futures point to better sentiment at the start of today's session in Europe. DAX-based futures are currently gaining 0.3%.
- Morgan Stanley is more optimistic about Chinese stocks, noting structural changes in the market.
- Precious metals are extending their upward streak. Gold is currently adding 0.4% and breaking out to new historic highs. Silver is also up close to 0.5%.
- In the FX market, the Japanese yen and the Australian dollar are doing best today. The U.S. dollar and the euro are the main losers.
- NATGAS quotations are down nearly 2.5%, after new weather forecasts indicated a warmer-than-average temperature distribution across the United States.
