• The US government remains in shutdown as Donald Trump addressed the nation yesterday on border security in an attempt to gain support and funding for his wall, claiming that there is a "Humanitarian and National Security crisis" in the US. 
• A positive session for US equities yesterday amid US-China trade discussions optimism, the S&P increased by 0.97% whilst the Nasdaq rose 1.1%. The Dow climbed 250 points, as it registers its first three day positive streak since November last year.
• Asian shares also rallied due to the trade talks progress, the Shanghai Composite and Japan's Topix both rose by around 1.1%. Adding to this, Australia's ASX index climbed 1% whilst the biggest percentage increase came from Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which gained 2.4%.
• Oil prices followed the positive results from equities and increased by over 1%, WTI crude breached $50 per barrel for the first time since December whilst Brent was up 1.3%.
• Sterling and the Euro both appreciated against the Dollar, with the pound up 0.2% to $1.2741 followed by the Euro which is also up 0.2% to $1.1466
• Flights at London's Heathrow airport were temporarily grounded yesterday evening as the military were called in after sightings of a drone, this is the second time in two months a drone has halted flights at major UK airports. 

UK, US and Europe: Investors are becoming more positive on the outlook of the global economy after somewhat recovering from the last years bear market, which was the worst year we have seen for equities since the financial crisis. Trade talks between the US-China are progressing which has caused equities to rally, especially US tech companies. FAANG stocks have experienced huge increases between Christmas Eve through to Tuesday's close with Netflix and Amazon being the biggest gainers, surging by 27% and nearly 37% respectively. Ryan Nauman, market strategist of Informa Financial Intelligence, has explained that "investors noticed that the FAANG stocks are solid companies and their valuations came down a lot after the big sell-off" and also alluded to the correlation between trade talks and performance of these stocks.

Economic calendar - key events and forecast (times in GMT)

Source: Daily FX Economic Calendar

Corporate News, Upgrades and Downgrades

• Reports are emerging that Apple is cutting production of its iPhone by 10% between January and March, this comes after the company reduced its revenue projections for 2019.
• Ted Baker announce that retail sales increased by 12.2% for the five week Christmas period to January the 5th, with online sales leading the way by increasing 18.7%.
• Saisnbury's posted disappointing Christmas sales this morning as like-for-like performance slipped by 1.1% over the Christmas period, with the retailing indicating its decision to reduce promotional activity has adversely impacted sales.
• Another retailer to post concerning results this morning is Mothercare, as like-for-like sales fall by 11% for the 13 week period to the 5th of January. 

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