Foreign exchange market. Asian session: the Australian dollar fell

Economic calendar (GMT0):

Time/ Region/ Event/ Period/ Previous/ Forecast/ Actual

00:30 Australia Building Permits, m/m December -12.4% Revised From -12.7% 5% 9.2%

00:30 Australia Trade Balance December -2.73 Revised From -2.90 -2.5 -3.535

01:45 China Markit/Caixin Services PMI January 50.2 52.4

04:30 Japan BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda Speaks

05:00 Japan Consumer Confidence January 42.7 43.8 42.5

The Australian dollar fell amid weak trade balance data. The country's trade balance came in at -A$3.54 billion in December compared to -A$2.73 billion reported previously, while economists had expected -A$2.5 billion. Slower economic growth in China and lower prices of such major export goods as iron ore and coal harmed Australia's trade balance. Expoirts fell by 5% in December, while imports fell by 1%.

The euro little changed ahead of retail sales data from the euro zone. Economists expect sales to have risen significantly in December. If data meet expectations this would be a positive sign for the economy of the single currency area. Some analysts believe that weak data released previously were driven by seasonal factors and the economy was actually doing better.

The yen rose against the U.S. dollar amid demand for safe-haven assets as stocks continued falling. Market participants were more cautious about the global economic growth after China released weak manufacturing data on Monday.

The New Zealand dollar jumped after Statistics New Zealand released unemployment data. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in the fourth quarter (the lowest level since March 2009), while economists had expected a reading of 6.1%. The unemployment rate stood at 6.0% in the third quarter.

EUR/USD: the pair fluctuated within $1.0910-35 in Asian trade

USD/JPY: the pair fell to Y119.40

GBP/USD: the pair traded within $1.4390-15

The most important news that are expected (GMT0):

(time / country / index / period / previous value / forecast)

08:50 France Services PMI (Finally) January 49.8 50.6

08:55 Germany Services PMI (Finally) January 56 55.4

09:00 Eurozone Services PMI (Finally) January 54.2 53.6

09:30 United Kingdom Purchasing Manager Index Services January 55.5 55.3

10:00 Eurozone Retail Sales (MoM) December -0.3% 0.3%

10:00 Eurozone Retail Sales (YoY) December 1.4% 1.5%

12:00 U.S. MBA Mortgage Applications January 8.8%

13:15 U.S. ADP Employment Report January 257 195

14:45 U.S. Services PMI (Finally) January 54.3 53.7

15:00 U.S. ISM Non-Manufacturing January 55.8 55.1

15:30 U.S. Crude Oil Inventories January 8.383 4.8