Today we will be quite busy receiving different fundamental data from all around the world. In the United States, we are waiting for the publication of the GDP report for the fourth quarter of 2019. It is expected that the US economy grew by only 2.1% in the last three months of 2019 due to the trade dispute with China, which hit US small and medium businesses the hardest.
The European markets will also be quite busy. Earlier today, Germany published its January unemployment reports, which were better than expected. The eurozone unemployment rate for December also showed a surprising drop. Later today we also expect the latest inflation readings from Germany, which could boost the euro, if positive.
Moreover, the Bank of England is holding a policy meeting today. There is much speculation as to whether the BoE will choose to preventively lower interest rates or not. Some earlier fundamentals from the UK were so bad that investors immediately decided a rate cut will happen in January. However, there were also positive reports published since then. As of now, the meeting could go either way.
Regarding the ongoing epidemic in China, the coronavirus has now claimed at least 170 lives and affected nearly 8,000 people in total. However, according to the latest research, increases in the number of patients suffering from the virus are now occurring at a slower pace, which could signal the beginning of the end of the epidemic.
Nevertheless, it appears that the virus has spread to India, another highly densely populated country. Russia is also on alert. Overall, the wariness of the virus continues to pressure stocks and equities.
