European equities opened marginally higher, flirting with one-year highs on Tuesday, with the British stocks continuing to outperform its regional counterparts amid vaccine-related optimism fueled by the latest comments from the UK vaccine minister Zahawi who said that vaccine supply should ramp up further in March.
In Japan, the vaccine czar said the vaccination rollout begins on Wednesday, and the first batch of vaccines will go out to 40,000 medical workers. Further boosting market sentiment, U.S. President Joe Biden continues to push ahead with his plan to pump extra money into the economy. However, after the initial modest gains, regional stocks turned mixed in recent trading.
Against this backdrop, the FTSE 100 in London gains 0.31% to 6,777, Italy’s FTSE MIB declines by 0.09 percent to 23,581, France’s CAC 40 is down by 0.12% to 5,779, while the German DAX 30 sheds 0.17% to 14,084. US stock index futures gain ahead of the opening bell following a long weekend.
In currencies, there is no reprieve for the dollar so far this week, with the US currency trading on the defensive against most counterparts. As such, EUR/USD climbs to near three-week highs above 1.2150 while GBP/USD continues to climb towards 1.4000 and was last seen around 1.3950.
Meanwhile, USDJPY bucks the trend, edging higher for the fifth day in a row. However, the pair retreated aggressively from the 105.60 area in recent trading as the greenback came under another selling wave amid positive risk sentiment. Later in the day, the USD index could erase some losses if risk demand wanes somehow.
Elsewhere, oil prices have settled around fresh 13-month highs due to a severe snow storm in the United States that boosted power demand and triggered contraction in crude oil production in Texas. Still, Brent crude refrained from another rally and turned marginally lower on the day in recent trading, signaling a possible downside correction amid the overbought conditions.
Meanwhile, gold prices turned marginally positive on Tuesday following three days of losses. The precious metal bounced from Friday’s lows seen around $1,810 but still lacks the recovery momentum to erase previous losses and stage a more robust ascent despite the persisting weakness in the greenback. The reason behind metal’s inability to regain ground is the upbeat market mood amid vaccine rollouts, oil market rally, slowing coronavirus cases, stimulus hopes, and expectations for economic recovery across the globe.
Nathan Lambert, Head of Global FX Analytical Department