U.S. Trade of Goods Deficit Rose to USD 90.6 Billion

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said January's strong jobs report increased the likelihood that the central bank would have to raise interest rates higher than the peak that policymakers had expected. If the economy is stronger than expected, "it could mean we have to do more work," said Bostic. He reiterated his target for the benchmark rate to hit 5.1% and stay there through 2024, in line with the median forecast by policymakers in December.

The U.S.’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau published in their final report saying the trade deficit in the U.S. came in at $67.4 billion in November, increasing by $6.4 billion MoM's revised figure, on Tuesday.

In December, U.S. exports stood at $250 billion, down by $2.2 billion MoM, while imports rose by $4.2 billion, totaling $317.6 billion. The goods deficit grew by $7.4 billion to $90.6 billion, while the services trade gap grew $1 billion to $23.2 billion. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at 12 p.m. EST.

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, S&P 500 futures retreated 0.12%, while Nasdaq Composite contracts were lower by a full percent. The Dollar Spot Index, DXY, retreated from the day’s highs, boosting other currencies. Oil climbed in sync with gold, while Bitcoin (BTCUSD) advanced for a second day.

Shares of Newmont Corporation (NEM) sank as the biggest publicly-traded gold miner by market cap raised its offer to purchase Australia’s Newcrest Mining to approximately $17 billion. Newmont's updated bid is 0.380 Newmont shares for every Newcrest share held. Previously, Newmont proposed paying 0.363 shares for each Newcrest share, which the company rejected, saying it “would not deliver sufficiently compelling value to Newcrest shareholders.” The board indicated that it is considering Newmont’s new offer.

European markets opened higher on Tuesday drawing from a positive sentiment induced by earnings reports which showed strong results for French BNP Paribas in 2022, while BP netted record revenue. On the data front, the United Kingdom in January saw the lowest annual house price growth in three years. The day also saw Germany reporting its industrial production dropped in December. The German DAX dropped 0.36% at the time of writing, as Linde's (LIN.DE) shares rose 0.07%. The French CAC 40 declined 0.15%, and the Euro Stoxx 600 stood nearly flat. The British FTSE 100 went up 0.36% concurrently. The best performer was BP (BP.L) whose stocks skyrocketed 5.52%.

In Asia, markets squeezed out gains earlier this morning , giving investors some relief from a recent sell-off fuelled by worries that U.S. interest rates would go higher than feared. Philippine inflation accelerated to a fresh 14-year high, defying all forecasts including that of the central bank’s sustained policy rate increases to quell broadening price pressure. Nine out of 13 categories including food, transport and utilities reported inflation past the central bank’s 4% upper-bound target, indicating that this price surge is broad-based.