Yen rose in European trade against a basket of major rivals off week lows after the Japanese government chose economic expert Kazuo Ueda as the new Bank of Japan governor as the current holder of the position, Haruhiko Kuroda, will finish his term in April.

In Europe, investors await important fourth quarter inflation and unemployment data, which will provide fresh clues on the health of the European economy and the path ahead for policies. 

EUR/JPY fell 0.4% to 141.52, with a session-high at 142.11, after rising 1.2% yesterday, marking one-week highs at 142.38 away from three-week lows at 139.55. 

Kazuo Ueda

The Japanese government chose economic expert Kazuo Ueda as the new Bank of Japan governor as the current holder of the position, Haruhiko Kuroda, will finish his term in April.

Ueda is aged 71 years old, and will be the first BoJ governor with an academic background, after getting his Doctorate from MIT and becoming an economics professor in the Tokyo University, while also working for the Bank of Japan board between 1998 and 2005.

Ueda still has to attend Parliament meetings later this month for his appointment to be official as lawmakers quiz him for his monetary policy plans.

Ueda is not yet known whether he's bullish or bearish in his policy tendencies, with analysts mostly expecting him to maintain the current ultra easy policies of his predecessor. 

European Data

Now investors await important European data later today, with GDP growth estimates at 0.1% in the euro zone in the fourth quarter, same as the third quarter. 

Strong data will underpin the European Central Bank's plans to continue hiking interest rates by an aggressive pace following the March meeting. 

UK unemployment stabilized at 3.7% for the three months ending December, matching estimates, and same as before. 

Euro rose against most major rivals as the dollar especially weakens today ahead of important US inflation data later this week. 

All About Inflation

The European Central Bank announced earlier this month a 0.5% rate hike amid efforts to contain inflation in the euro zone. 

It came after the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points in a sign for a slower inflation in the US.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde acknowledged the recent slowdown in euro zone growth. 

EUR/USD rose 0.4% to 1.0725 as of 19:07 GMT. 

Dollar Under Pressure

The dollar index fell 0.3% to 103.2 as of 18:58 GMT, with a session-high at 103.8, and a low at 103.2. 

Investors await the important US inflation data tomorrow for January, expected to show further slowdown in inflationary pressures. 

Such a slowdown would allow the Federal Reserve to taper off the current pace of policy tightening even further. 

US stock indices rose on Monday ahead of important inflation data tomorrow.

The Fed recently announced plans to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, a slow down from recent meetings.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that overcoming inflation still requires a long road, and that he expects further rate hikes in upcoming meetings.

US Inflation

Tomorrow, US inflation data will be released for January, expected to show a slowdown in inflationary pressures, which will impact Fed's policies.

Corporate Earnings

The earnings season for major corporation is coming to an end soon with most major corporations having announced their results.

The fourth quarter results were mixed, especially in the tech sector which suffered the pressures from a potential recession, and rising inflation. 

Such developments forced major tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Alphabet, to announce layoffs of thousands of employees to cope with the changes. 

Dow Jones rose 0.8%, or 280 points to 34,152, as S&P 500 rose 0.8%, or 34 points to 4,125, while NASDAQ shed 1.2%, or 137 points to 11,854.