In December the Federal Reserve decided to start tapering its monthly asset purchases, citing strong labour market and overall economic improvement.
The Eurozone economy is strengthening and fears of another recession have eased after the latest positive data.
As always, the first week of a month is usually more interesting for traders than its second part, as it includes central banks' meeting all over the world, as well as data from key sectors of the economy, and can shed some light on future moves of policymakers.
Australian central bank decided to stay in the "wait-and-see" mode during its December policy meeting, expressing their readiness to act in case economy struggles to grow.
Many positive outlooks for economic growth of Canada in 2014, which have been supported by a better than expected performance in the third quarter of last years along with a recovery of the global economy overall, might be overoptimistic.
The U.K. central bank left its monetary policy unchanged in December, even despite a flow of positive fundamental data. According to the Bank of England report the Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.5%, while the size of its bond-buying programme held steady at 375 billion pounds.
The world's largest economy ended the last year on a high note, as growing debates on whether how and when the Federal Reserve will start trimming down its stimulus programme helped to boost consumers' and businesses' confidence, positively contributing to the economy.
The 2014 year so far definitely cannot be considered as a ‘good year' for the Euro, as the single currency was strongly undermined by the ECB comments and other data, falling to its lowest level in one month against the U.S. Dollar hitting 1.3548 on Thursday.
The number of New Zealand building consents granted by local councils for new homes rose 11% in December, driven by apartment developments.
Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda are both determined to revive growth in the world's third largest economy by any means necessary.
Is Britain at risk of a housing bubble? Perhaps, but the latest data suggests fears are exaggerated, as house price fell between November and December, posting the first monthly decline since January 2013.
As usual a report from the ADP gives a first insight into the official labour market report due on Friday. Analysts expected payrolls to fall following November's strong gain; however, a surprise jump in private sector hiring is bolstering the case the Fed can trim down its monthly purchases at a faster pace than previously was thought.
The 18-nation bloc started this year with a bunch of mixed data as unemployment rate remained at a record high, while retail sales rebounded strongly, suggesting the region has stabilized; however, it is too early to speak about robust growth.
The Australian Dollar started this year by performing a strong rally against its U.S. counterpart, however, after hitting a crucial level of 0.90 the pair pulled back and extended its decline on Tuesday, following a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
During December the EUR/CHF currency couple was highly volatile, first depreciating from 1.2325 to 1.2166 and then rocketing above previous highs.
A housing bubble? Imbalanced economic recovery? These were only the main topics among economists during the last year, as they expressed their concerns about the future prospects of the U.K. economy.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as the next Chairman of American central bank, with 56 senators voting in favour of her appointment.
The shared currency has lost some ground versus its major peers on Tuesday following a report from the Eurostat, showing inflationary pressure retreated further away from the ECB official target in December, raising concerns the region is still struggling to grow.
On January 1, 2013 the USD/CAD was traded around 0.9927 and one year after the pair was hovering above 1.07.
For most of the last year, the focus of financial markets was clearly set on debates whether the Fed will start tapering its stimulus programme, the questionable strength of the world's second largest economy as well as when and how the Eurozone will emerge from its longest-ever recession.
Following a positive 2013 year, where each economic report suggested the central bank will start raising interest rates sooner than it was planned, this year starts on a negative note, as activity in key services sector slowed to a six-month low in December.
It was not easy for Ben. It took him and his team several tries to boost growth in the world's largest economy. Finally, Ben Bernanke comes to the end of his impressive tenure as the U.S. central bank Chairman.
The single currency was little changed against the U.S. Dollar on Monday after the release of the fundamental data from Europe, while the pair inched higher after better-than-expected inflation data from Germany, and disappointing services PMI in the United States.
Many positive outlooks for economic growth of Canada in 2014, which have been supported by a better than expected performance in the third quarter of last years along with a recovery of the global economy overall, might be overoptimistic.