We bring you a regular recap of the fundamentals that influenced the markets in the past trading week.
The markets were anxiously awaiting Wednesday's long-awaited data from the US and Canada, mainly concerning the interest rate change.
GBP
At the beginning of the trading week, the data on the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) marking sentiment in the UK manufacturing sector came in slightly negative compared to the previous results:
Composite PMI: 53.4 versus 53.6
Manufacturing PMI: 56.9 vs. 57.9
Services PMI: 53.3 versus 53.6
The British pound began to weaken slightly on the basis of these results.
CAD
The bigger expected event of the week was the announcement of Canadian interest rates, which were left unchanged by the Bank of Canada (BOC) at 0.25 %.
However, this was a disappointment to the markets as the markets were pricing in a 70% probability of an increase and the Canadian dollar began to weaken. The Board of Governors prospectively expects rates to have to rise.
Full statement by the Bank of Canada:
https://static.bankofcanada.ca/uploads/pdf/mpr-2022-01-26.pdf
USD
On the same day (Wednesday) the markets were also waiting for the announcement of the change in US interest rates, which the Fed left unchanged as expected at the current level of 0.25 %.
Jerome Powel (Chairman of the US Federal Reserve) mentioned that there is room for a rate hike without hurting jobs. Labour market conditions are consistent with maximum employment and there is currently a very strong consensus that it will soon be time to raise rates.
At the end of the week, the markets were still waiting for the US GDP results, which came out really positive for the US dollar: 6.9 % versus 2.3 %.
These events caused the US dollar to strengthen strongly in the second half of the week.
What's in store for the current trading week?
The start of this week will be weaker on economic data. We expect only GDP results from the euro area. On the other hand, we expect increased volatility on Tuesday and Thursday through interest rate announcements in Australia, the UK and the Eurozone. Also of interest will be the incoming PMI data from the US and the UK.
Sources:
English 
Czech 
Polish