OfficailBLOG
  1. BigBoss
  2. blog
  3. British Pound muted upon UK’s unemployment data, and Australia’s Q4 CPI to be released today

British Pound muted upon UK’s unemployment data, and Australia’s Q4 CPI to be released today

BLOG January 27, 2021 at 03:07 am (GMT)
  • UK unemployment data did limited support on the Pound
  • Australia Q4 CPI data to be released today
  •  Bitcoin bull takes a back seat as Gamestop goes crazy

British Pound remained quiet this morning despite the UK’s unemployment data slightly beating forecasts. It landed at 5%, compared with a previous 4.9%, and meanwhile the consensus was at 5.1%. However, although it has limited help on the currency, the data does show that even during the lockdown, the job market has been slowly recovering, with additional 52,000 people added to payroll. Latest update on UK’s lockdown includes a news that Boris Johnson expects to approve the use of hotels to quarantine international travelers to contain the “reinfection from abroad.” In Eurozone, Euro continued the struggle amid worries on the surging cases. The EU is expected to block exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine after the pharmaceutical company announced that production and deliveries would be reduced in coming weeks.

In APAC region, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release inflation figures on the Q4 CPI. ABS has been repeatedly hesitant to accept economic weakness and issue negative rates. This can be further tested by today’s data. Current consensus forecasts the CPI to be declining from 1.6% to 0.7% on QoQ basis. Further, RBA Trimmed Mean CPI could also stay unchanged at 0.4% QoQ and 1.2% YoY.
In cryptocurrency, the fervor on Bitcoin seems to have calmed a little bit for now, replaced by the maniac on Gamestop. Bitcoin kicked off the year with a full head of steam, easily reaching the 40k level, where the other force eventually came into play. After some back-and-forth reversals, BTCUSD has been pulled back to the 30k level last Thursday. In the equity market, Gamestop (NYSE:GME) continued the crazy trend, as retail investors battling professional traders who have heavily shorted the stock. It closed the Tuesday’s session with a 62% gain after nearly doubling during the regular trading hours.