The market is keeping a calmer mood for the most part
EUR/USD to one-week lows
USD/JPY also eased a little after as the upside momentum stalls ahead of key technical levels.

Latest data released by Eurostat – 8 January 2021
The figure disregards people who are registered as unemployed but are no longer looking for work or aren’t available for work, so there’s that to consider alongside the furlough programs that are masking actual labour market conditions.

Nippon TV reports with the national figure
That will top the record from yesterday of 7,568 daily cases as the virus situation in Japan continues to take a turn for the worse since the new year. The prevailing conditions mark a slippery slope for Japan and if things do get worse, it could very well start

European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announces
She confirms that the bloc has bought additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which had been rumoured already earlier in the week . While the news is encouraging, let’s see how they will go about handling the rollout and deployment after the initial hiccup.

The US non-farm payrolls report will be out tomorrow
The estimate is for a +62K reading, which is relatively on the softer side. However, the yesterday highlights some potential downside risk to the figure.

Comments by ECB hawk, Jens Weidmann
The headline comment is notable as it will be more of a heated topic later in the year if the economic recovery keeps on track. That will also start to bring into question the PEPP fulfilment by the ECB before it expires in June next year.

The dollar leads gains in European morning trade
Of note, USD/JPY is pushing to its highest levels in over a week as price touches 103.70 upon a break of its 200-hour moving average @ 103.26 earlier in the day.

Latest data released by Eurostat – 7 January 2021

Latest data released by Eurostat – 7 January 2021
The thing to watch here is that much like how confidence/optimism grew during the summer last year, it could easily falter again if the timeline of the vaccine rollout is misconstrued and if the virus situation continues to worsen in the meantime.

Remarks by UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, in parliament
– Schools will be the first to reopen
– That moment may come some time in mid-February
Johnson is largely trying to manage expectations as the UK sees a national lockdown until 15 February at the very least currently. There is plenty of talk that this could even extend