Today the economic calendar is quite loaded with events. Early in the morning, Japan released its latest retail sales report, which was slightly better than anticipated at -0.3%. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum in Davos continues, so important announcements could come out of it at any minute.
Spain released its unemployment rate report for the last quarter of 2020, which was also better than the forecast, coming in at 16.3%. This is still among the highest numbers in the eurozone.
In Italy, consumer confidence in January improved, but business confidence dropped. The eurozone-wide reading on consumer confidence, meanwhile, was in line with the forecasts at -15.5 for January. Economic and industrial sentiments are improving, however.
Furthermore, Germany’s inflation rate reports for January also proved better than expected, with preliminary rates set at 1.0% and 0.8% YoY and MoM, respectively. The improved numbers come amid a prolonged lockdown in Europe’s largest economy.
A flood of reports will come later from the United States as well. There will be an important GDP growth rate report for Q4 of 2020, in addition to the regular jobless claims data which is published each Thursday. Moreover, there will also be reports on PCE and trade balance.
In other news, the short squeeze with heavily shorted stocks such as GameStop and Blackberry, on which we reported earlier, is also still continuing. It might be approaching its end, however, as buyers are bound to start selling the stock at some point to benefit from the higher share price.
US stock indices continue to display a lot of confusion. Today the Dow Jones index is doing better than the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, who are both going to open in the red. Earnings reports from Visa, MasterCard, and McDonald’s, among others, are expected today. Meanwhile, the share values of Tesla, Apple, and Facebook are going down today, despite positive earnings reports.
