Mark Carney’s live speech at the February Inflation Report - Treasury Committee

Pablo Piovano FXStreet

The Bank of England will release later today its February Inflation Report, with Governor Mark Carney scheduled to speak before the Treasury Select Committee at 10h GMT along with MPC members Andrew Haldane, Ian McCafferty and Gertjan Vlieghe.

Key notes

UK inflation figures have extended the up trend in January, showing consumer prices tracked by the CPI rising at an annualized 1.8%, up from December’s 1.6% gain.

Market expectations are tilted towards a dovish tone from the BoE today, in line with the recent Inflation Report published a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, last week’s disappointing results from UK indicators seem to leave to room for surprises today.

It is worth recalling as well that Governor M.Carney said earlier in the month that the inflation overshoot has been ‘entirely’ due to GBP weakness, while it sees the CPI at 2.75% in Q2 2018.

Author

Pablo Piovano

FXStreet

Born and bred in Argentina, Pablo has been carrying on with his passion for FX markets and trading since his first college years.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Breaking: US and Israel attack Iran, risk aversion to sweep global markets

Early Saturday, United States (US) President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, following Israel’s pre-emptive missile attacks against Tehran.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.