–  Indices from Asia-Pacific traded lower at the beginning of a new week. Nikkei dropped 0.1%, S&P/ASX 200 traded 1.1% lower, Kospi slumped 0.9% and Nifty 50 moved 0.8% lower. Indices from China traded 0.2-0.8% lower

– DAX futures point to a slightly higher opening of the European cash session

– US index futures little changed compared to Friday closing prices

– UK prime minister Sunak is set to meet with EC President von der Leyen today to discuss the Brexit deal (Northern Ireland protocol). UK deputy PM Raab said that great progress has been made and that long-standing issue is close to be solved

– ECB President Lagarde said that a 50 bp rate hike at the March meeting is not certain and remains data-dependent. ECB Visco said that peak rate could be 3.75% but it remains data-dependant

– BoJ Governor nominee Ueda said that CPI growth will slow below 2% in fiscal-2023 but it will take time for the 2% target to be met sustainably and stably. He also said that current monetary easing conducted by Bank of Japan is appropriate

– Conway, RBNZ chief economist, expects New Zealand official cash rate to peak around 5.5% around the middle of the year (4.75% currently)

– Russia halted pipeline oil deliveries to Polish refiner PKN Orlen over the weekend

– New Zealand retail sales dropped 0.6% QoQ in Q4 2022

– Australian business inventories dropped 0.2% QoQ in Q4 2022 (exp. 0.0% QoQ)

– Cryptocurrencies trade lower – Bitcoin drops 0.3%, Dogecoin trades 0.7% lower while Litecoin pulls back 0.4%. Ethereum gains 0.1%

– Energy commodities trade mixed at the beginning of a new week – oil drops 0.9% while US natural gas prices jump 1.4%

– Precious metals pull back slightly amid USD strengthening – gold trades 0.1% lower, silver drops 0.2% and platinum pulls back 0.5%

– USD and EUR are the best performing major currencies while NZD and AUD lag the most