In today's release, we’ll cover the following topics:
Joe Biden took the presidential oath of office during the inauguration ceremony in front of the Capitol in Washington, thereby becoming the 46th leader of the United States. During his first speech as the 46th President of the United States, Biden stressed that his election was not a triumph for an individual candidate, but for democracy itself.
Joe Biden signed a total of 17 executive orders, memoranda, and executive directives on his first day in office. Nine of them directly cancel the orders of the previous President, Donald Trump. Biden publicly promised to cancel many of them during the election campaign, as well as immediately after his election.
Biden returned the United States to the World Health Organization (WHO) and financial markets took the news positively, thanks to the belief in large-scale incentives that will facilitate the implementation of presidential decrees to combat coronavirus infection.
In addition, Biden canceled two more unpopular decisions of Trump, which caused a storm of negative emotions in society at the time. He returned the US to the Paris Climate Agreement and froze the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.
In a decision made in Ottawa on Wednesday, politicians led by Governor Tiff Macklem said Canada's economy is stable and at the beginning of a two-year recovery period. According to the Canadian regulator, such a period is necessary to eliminate the consequences of the pandemic.
The Bank of Canada kept its overnight interest rate at 0.25%, which is already a record low. Also on Wednesday, the bank confirmed that it will keep borrowing costs low until 2023. In addition, representatives of the Central Bank announced their intention to continue buying financial assets at the current pace (at least 4 billion Canadian dollars per week).
At the time of publication of the data, the Canadian dollar rose in value against the US dollar by almost one percent and reached the maximum price of April 2018.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 50,000 people in the country got a job between November and December 2020, which led to a decrease in the unemployment rate by 0.2%. The unemployment rate has fallen by almost a percentage point from the 7.5% peak recorded in July 2020. But this figure is still 1.5% higher than the "pre-Covid times".
We see that by boosting confidence and encouraging households to spend, the Australian authorities are encouraging companies to resume hiring and Australians to return to the labor market.
And this, in turn, is reflected in the quotations of the Australian dollar, which, feeling the support of the data from the labor market, continues to rise.
At its meeting, the Governing Council of the ECB left interest rates and its huge stimulus program unchanged. Back in December, the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program totaling 1.85 trillion euros was extended until March 2022.
Amid economic uncertainty, the ECB said it is ready to update its policies. "We remain ready to adjust all our instruments as necessary to ensure that inflation moves steadily toward our target," Lagarde said on Thursday.
Despite the prospect of a resumption of recovery, the ECB will remain calm for a long time, as the economy is about 7% smaller than a year ago. This means that the strengthening of the euro will only continue.
That’s all for me. Closely monitor the news background and be prepared for all the surprises of the market.