Euro was lifted mildly by news report that Greek is having a turnaround and seek for an extension of the so called "loan agreement", that is the international bailout, for a period of four to six months. It's believed as a condition for the creditors, Greece must not roll back the austerity implemented under the EUR 240b bailout. It's highly uncertain on the details of the extension, not to mention that if it could finally be agreed. And without an extension, Greece would be cut loose after the current bailout expires on February 28. Nonetheless judging from market reactions so far, traders seemed to be rather confident that a deal would finally be reached. Also, ECB is generally expected to continue allowing Greek banks to use the emergency liquidity assistance after today's decision.
In Japan, BoJ maintained policies unchanged as widely expected. The central bank said in the statement that "Japan's economy has continued its moderate recovery trend." "Industrial output is picking up," and that was a brighter view comparing to last month's output was "bottoming out". Focus will turn to Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's press conference later today. Released in Asian session, Australia conference board leading indicator rose 0.4% in December while Westpac leading index rose 0.1% in January.
UK events will be the main focus in European session today. Minutes for BoE MPC meeting in February will likely show policymakers voted unanimously to keep both the bank rates and asset purchase target unchanged. It believed that policy makers could be more concern over the tightening in the labor market, as unemployment rate just fell to a six-year low, and thus wage pressure. Impact of recent sharp fall in oil prices on inflation would likely be seen as temporary. Last week's inflation report indicated that BoE is ready to hike rates in 2016. Taking about labour market, UK will also release employment data today. Meanwhile Swiss will also release ZEW expectations.
From US, housing starts, building permits, PPI and industrial production will be featured. Main focus would be on FOMC minutes. Some analysts noted that while Fed remained patience regarding rate hike, the minutes could show fed leaning further towards a tightening bias. And markets will look for clues on whether the word "patient" to be removed from the statement in March meeting, thus paving the way for hike after two more FOMC meetings.