Foreign exchange market. Asian session: U.S. dollar traded broadly stronger against its major peers during the Asian ahead of ECB

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

00:00 Australia HIA New Home Sales, m/m November +3.0% +2.2%

00:30 Australia Consumer Inflation Expectation January +3.4% +3.2%

05:00 Japan BoJ monthly economic report

The U.S. dollar traded broadly stronger against its major peers during the Asian session. The euro is trading near 11-year lows ahead of the ECB-meeting today where the large-scale bond-buying program will be discussed. According to insiders the ECB Executive Board has proposed to purchase 50 billion euros in assets a month through the end of 2016 not starting before the 1^st of March. The ECB interest Rate Decision is scheduled for 12:45 GMT, the press conference at 13:30.

Market participants are also looking forward to data on U.S. Initial jobless Claims, the House Price index and Consumer Confidence.

The Australian dollar traded weaker against the greenback. New Home Sales for November rose at a slower pace by +2.2% compared to +3.0% in September. The consumer Inflation Expectation was below estimates with a reading of +3.2% in January compared to +3.4% in the previous month.

New Zealand's dollar continued its fall and traded at the weakest since 2012 against the greenback currently trading at USD0.7517. Both, the New Zealand and the Australian dollar were under pressure as the Bank of Canada unexpectedly cut benchmark interest rates from 1% to 0.75% as a reaction to falling oil prices and its negative impact on inflation, fuelling expectations that the south pacific central banks will also have to cut rates.

The Japanese yen traded lower against the greenback after surging the previous day when the Bank of Japan held off on further expanding its massive stimulus program and kept the monetary base target unchanged. Volatile trading was partly a result of China's central bank's move to add liquidity to the market and the upcoming ECB policy meeting today.

EUR/USD: the euro traded lower against the greenback

USD/JPY: the U.S. dollar traded stroger against the yen

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

09:00 Switzerland World Economic Forum Annual Meetings

09:30 United Kingdom PSNB, bln December 13.4 9.2

11:00 United Kingdom CBI industrial order books balance January 5 6

12:45 Eurozone ECB Interest Rate Decision 0.05% 0.05%

13:30 Eurozone ECB Press Conference

13:30 U.S. Initial Jobless Claims January 316 301

14:00 U.S. Housing Price Index, m/m November +0.6% +0.4%

14:00 U.S. Housing Price Index, y/y November +4.5%

15:00 Eurozone Consumer Confidence January -11.5 -10.5

16:00 U.S. Crude Oil Inventories January +5.4