The ECB rate decision will be the market focus for today. The Central Bank is not expected to make any changes to its monetary policy or altering its QE program since the last time they did so 6 weeks ago. In the US, the Philly Fed Manufacturing index is also out to be released. Yesterday, Bank of Canada left rates unchanged as expected at 0.5%. In the US, Fed’s Beige Book economic report showed that the economy continued to expand modestly through the end of last year. The dollar has recovered mildly versus other currencies.

Currencies: The Dollar gained versus other assets yesterday Fed chair Janet Yellen said that it “makes sense” to gradually raise interest rate. And she warned that “waiting too long to begin moving toward the neutral rate could risk a nasty surprise down the road – either too much inflation, financial instability, or both.” The USDJPY rose from 113.60 to almost 115 overnight, while EURUSD dropped from 1.07 levels to 1.0630 lows. GBPUSD has lost the momentum it gained after May’s comments on Tuesday and while it reached 1.2415 that day, it is trading 150 pips lower at 1.2350.

Stocks: US Stocks closed mixed yesterday and relatively unchanged from their opening prices. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.11% even after Toshiba shares slipped 17.27% in morning trade. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24% after jobs data. In Australia, data for December showed 13,500 jobs added, beating a 10,000 gain forecast. At the close in New York, the Dow Jones lost 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.18%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.31%.

Oil and Gold: As almost always the case, when Dollar strengthens, Oil and Gold dropped. That was the case also yesterday as oil fell $1.6 or 2.8% to $52.43. Gold, fell also from its 2 month highs of $1215 to $1198.