Business and political leaders as well as key players from charities, academia and other organisations are heading to the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which will be held under the shadow of global crises. Over here, UK house prices are forecast to rise 3% this year, beating estimates of a decline, a leading estate agent has said, amid a mortgage pricing war and expectations of Bank of England interest rate cuts. The surge in oil prices on Friday following US and UK airstrikes against Houthi rebel sites in Yemen was short lived. Houthi rebel attacks on ships in the Red Sea have fuelled fears over disruption to trade. Brent crude, which rose above $80 last week, is back at $78.32 a barrel this morning while US crude is at $72.63 a barrel. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Friday’s producer price inflation came as a certain relief to inflation worries as the latest data showed an unexpected contraction in the monthly figure. The jump in oil prices, following the US and UK airstrikes in areas in Yemen controlled by the Houthis, which sent the barrel of American crude to past the $75 per barrel level, didn’t last long. "The risks are tilted to the upside as conflict news continues to flow in this Monday. Rishi Sunak will address parliament as his government is ready to intensify strikes on Houthi targets. Yet there is a strong barricade into the $74/75 a barrel level in the US crude and near $80 a barrel level in Brent, as the rising global supply, increasing competition to Poec and the globally weak economic outlook weigh heavier and convince the bears to sell every geopolitically supported rallies." China’s central bank left interest rates unchanged today despite expectations of a cut, while pumping more cash into the financial system. The reaction on the Chinese stock market was muted, with the Chinese CSI 300 index edging 0.15% higher. A weakening Chinese currency has limited the room for the People’s Bank of China to reduce borrowing costs and rate cuts could be postponed until later this year. The yuan has weakened more than 1% against the dollar so far this year. Economists at Capital Economics said: "We suspect the main reason the PBOC failed to deliver this time is a desire to avoid triggering renewed depreciation pressure on the renminbi." Wall Street is closed for Martin Luther King Day today. The US stock markets ended last week flattish (the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose slightly, while the Dow Jones slipped 0.3%).
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