| Time | Country | Event | Period | Previous value | Forecast | Actual |
|---|
| 10:00 | Eurozone | Unemployment Rate | November | 7.3% | 7.2% | 7.2% |
USD rose against most of its major counterparts in the European session on Monday, as investors prepared for the release of the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data for December later in the week, which could support the case for the Federal Reserve to pursue a more aggressive path of policy tightening in order to rein in inflation.
The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), measuring the U.S. currency's value relative to a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.18% to 95.89.
The U.S. inflation data for December are scheduled to be released on Wednesday. Economists’ forecasts suggest that the report will show a 7.0 percent y/y jump in headline CPI and a 5.4 percent y/y climb in core CPI. If realized, both projections would be higher than November’s readings, which hit levels unseen in decades, and would guarantee a March interest rate liftoff by the Fed.
The expectations that the U.S. central bank will begin raising rates in March heightened significantly after Friday’s release of the U.S. December jobs data, which revealed that the situation in the U.S. labor market was tight in the final month of 2021 with faster-than-expected increases in hourly earnings and near-max employment.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability for the first rate hike by the Fed in March rose to 75.7%, versus 60.7% a week ago.