During today's Asian trading, the US dollar was almost unchanged against major currencies, as investors took a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the publication of US data.
Trading activity on the foreign exchange market may be significantly lower than usual due to the closure of a number of Asian stock markets due the celebration of the Lunar New Year and the official holiday in Australia.
Preliminary data on US GDP for the 4th quarter will be released by the Ministry of Commerce at 13:30 GMT. The consensus forecast assumes a slowdown in economic growth to 2.6% from 3.2% in the third quarter. Weekly data on initial applications for unemployment benefits, reports on new home sales and durable goods orders will also be in the focus of investors' attention today.
Market participants are also waiting for next week, when the first meetings of the world's leading central banks - the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve System - will take place this year. The Fed is expected to slow the pace of the rate increase to 25 basis points from 50 bps in December and 75 bps at the previous four meetings. Meanwhile, the ECB has practically committed itself to raising its key rate by half a percent next week. As for the Bank of England, traders estimate an almost 100% probability of a 0.5% rate increase.
The US Dollar Currency Index (DXY), which tracks the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona) rose by 0.04% to 101.68.