UK restrictions could be lifted sooner than 21 June if vaccine data is better than anticipated - report
The report says that Boris Johnson's roadmap to lift lockdown restrictions in the UK could be accelerated if "real world data on the effect of vaccines is better than expected", citing government sources on the matter.
Germany Q4 final GDP +0.3% vs +0.1% q/q prelim
Slight delay in the release by the source. The preliminary report can be found .
That's a bump to the initial estimate as the German economy barely squeezed out growth at the end of last year, but at least that beats out fears of a possible contraction.
Trade ideas thread - European session 24 February 2021
Meanwhile, the latter continues to be buoyed by the solid technical picture with EUR/GBP falling below 0.8600 for the first time since February last year.
Pound holds higher after earlier spike
The pound continues to do no wrong since the start of the year as the spike earlier today just bolsters the technical picture in the quid across the board for the moment.
Nikkei 225 closes lower by 1.61% at 29,671.70
Japanese stocks turn lower amid the more sour mood with the Nikkei slipping back under 30,000 to finish at the lows for the day.
Risk keeps more defensive ahead of European trading
That said, the sharp decline in Hong Kong and China is the sour story in Asia with China investors poised for a record outflow out of Hong Kong stocks this session.
Economic data coming up in the European session
Despite a roaring comeback in the stock market yesterday, risk sentiment remains more fragile and tepid with US futures keeping a touch softer to start the new day.
Germany reports 8,007 new coronavirus cases, 422 deaths in latest update today
That reaffirms the improved trend as total active cases across the country eases a little more to ~116,400. However, the death count is still not quite at desired levels with the 422 deaths today taking the total tally to 68,740 persons.
Four Fed speakers on the agenda for Wednesday 24 February 2021
1530 GMT Fed Board of Governors member Brainard will be speaking, discussing the Bank's maximum employment mandate in an event hosted by Harvard University, there will be both
ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: Huge spike for GBP
Forex news for Asia trading
for Wednesday
24
February 2021
It
was an active day in some of the major forex pairs here during the
session, cable the stand-out mover with a 100+ point jump (and a
solid size retracement after GBP/USD spiked to highs (briefly) above
1.4230 on the back of a drop in EUR/GBP, cable stop loss buy orders
being triggered and