Less than 24 hours since stepping into office, US President Joe Biden is already making waves with his new executive orders.
Some of the new President’s first moves included signing up for the Paris Accord again. The international agreement on climate change was abandoned by Trump, but Biden aims to restore it, as he has spoken in favor of helping the country transition to cleaner sources of energy. In another order he also closed the Keystone XL pipeline over environmental concerns.
In addition, Biden has begun the process of the United States rejoining the World Health Organization, which Trump abandoned. There will be a special US team working with the WHO that will be headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on infectious diseases in the US.
A substantial portion of the World Health Organization’s budget is formed by donations from the US, which Trump previously pulled. In addition, the WHO is eager to negotiate for more vaccines to be made available to developing countries, which have been largely left out by drug manufacturers.
In Europe, all eyes are on the ECB today as it is holding its first policy meeting for 2021. No adjustments to asset purchases or interest rates are expected today. However, ECB President Christine Lagarde will speak after the meeting, and her statements are of the utmost importance.
US stock indices continue to rally thanks to the transition of power in the United States. Biden’s cabinet is expected to devote more funding to stimulus and recovery, which is boosting risky assets.
As for the economic calendar, as usual today we await the jobless claims reports from the US, with initial claims expected to be over 900k again.
Besides the ECB, the Bank of England is also on the calendar today, releasing its latest credit survey. Earlier in the day, the Bank of Japan also had a policy meeting where it left the interest rate unchanged at -0.1%.
