Morning wrap (27.01.2021)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading lower. S&P 500 dropped 0.15%, Nasdaq and Dow Jones declined 0.07% each while Russell 2000 slipped 0.62%

• Stocks in Asia traded mostly lower today. S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.65%, Kospi declined 0.4% while Nikkei added 0.3%

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

• European Central Bank is looking into USD weakness and will monitor impact of Fed and ECB policies

• Conte said that he is seeking to form a pro-European government following his resignation

• Total coronavirus case count exceeded 100 million. UK became the first country in Europe to report over 100 thousand coronavirus deaths

• Janet Yellen said that Treasury will work together with the Federal Reserve

• United States and South Korea agreed that North Korean nuclear issue is an urgent matter

• China plans to limit steel output in 2021

• Chinese industrial profits increased 20.1% YoY in December 2020

• API report pointed to a 5.27 mb decline in oil inventories (exp. +0.6 mb)

• Microsoft published better-than-expected Q4 results. EPS came in at $2.03 (exp. $1.64) while revenue reached $43.08 billion (exp. $40.18 billion). Intelligent Cloud revenue increased 23% YoY to $14.60 billion (exp. $13.77 billion)

• Agricultural commodities gain along with oil. Precious metals trade slightly lower

• GBP, USD and EUR are the best performing major currencies while NZD and CAD lag the most

Total coronavirus case count exceeded 100 million this week. Source: worldometers, XTB