Gold and silver trade higher leading into the European open

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(Kitco News) – Gold (0.22%) and silver (0.30%) are heading into the EU session higher after some positive price action overnight. In the rest of the commodities complex, both copper (0.28%) and spot WTI (0.69%) are in the black. 

After some softness in Wall St, the Nikkei 225 (-1.28%), ASX (-1.08%), and Shanghai Composite (-0.96%) struggled overnight. Futures in Europe are pointing towards a mixed open but most of the major index futures are negative. 

In FX markets, USD/JPY was the biggest mover overnight. The pair fell -0.37% to trade at 113.75 as the rest of the majors remained relatively stable. In the crypto space, BTC/USD moved 0.67% higher to trade at $42,874.

Headlines from overnight

Fed’s Waller says 3 rate hikes in 2022 are a good baseline position.

Fed’s Daly says it’d be quite reasonable to raise rates in March.

Fed’s Harker says Fed action on inflation is required.

China’s southern city of Zhuhai cancels all flights to Beijing amid COVID-19 spread.

China said to agree with U.S. to release crude oil reserves around the Lunar New Year.

North Korea reportedly fired an unidentified projectile towards the East Sea.

The White House confirms Biden has chosen his three remaining Federal Reserve nominees.

South Korean central bank hikes its base rate by 25bps.

U.K. newspaper The Times says COVID-19 passes are expected to be abandoned.

U.K. November monthly GDP +0.9% vs +0.4% m/m expected.

Japan December PPI 8.5% y/y (expected 8.8%).

China’s December trade balance hit a $94.46bn surplus.

North Korean hackers stole a total of $395 million worth of crypto coins in 2021.

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include U.S. retail sales, import and export data, industrial production, University of Michigan data, comments from ECB’s Lagarde and Fed’s Williams.