ONS reports on the situation for the period of 11-24 January
They estimate that 17% of the workforce is on furlough, the highest level since July while the percentage of businesses currently trading remains at 71%.

Latest data released by Eurostat – 28 January 2021

Latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending 22 January 2021
–  -1.9%
– Market index 907.6 vs 946.8 prior
– Refinancing index 4,261.5 vs 4,484.2 prior
The drop here stems from a decline in purchases and refinancing activity in the past week, but comes on the back of a two weeks back. As such,

Dollar pushes higher in anticipation of the Fed later in the day
Perhaps some positioning flows ahead of the key risk event are playing out now as we get into North American trading, as the dollar is making some headway across the board.

It looks like the meeting is back on
here

CNBC reports
Citron just said that is has covered a majority of its GameStop shorts at a loss. It says that it covered them „within the $90’s“. GameStop shares now trimming gains to roughly 30% in pre-market trading on the back of all this.

European indices fall to fresh session lows
The DAX is now down by over 1% as European indices are seeing red across the board. Adding to that is US futures also falling to fresh lows on the day. S&P 500 futures are down 0.3% while Nasdaq futures are seeing gains trimmed to 0.3% now.

Corriere della Sera reports with the headline
This is very much expected as mentioned earlier . The question now is will he be able to form a viable coalition to return back to the helm. Otherwise, fresh elections certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibilities at this stage.

Dollar pares early advance and is trading flatter across the board now
The same goes for other major currencies against one another as there isn’t much change as we look towards midday in Europe. A snapshot:

Latest data released by CBI – 26 January 2021
„With the lockdown likely to remain in place in the near-term retailers expect this weakness to continue.“
Looking at the details, online sales reported a surge but high-street retailers suffered – especially clothing stores.