Published: Friday, 13 February 2026 at 14:30 (UK) Inflation will be the focus in the upcoming holiday-shortened trading week. After US markets close on Monday for Presidents’ Day, the UK’s January consumer price index (CPI) report will come out on Wednesday, followed on Friday by the December update on the US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index. Also on Wednesday, traders will study the minutes from the Fed’s January meeting (which resulted in a rate hold) for a clearer sense of whether policymakers might cut rates before chair Jay Powell steps down in May. Meanwhile, earnings season rumbles on with UK-listed miners – including Glencore, Rio Tinto and Anglo American – set to report full-year results. Below we preview the Q4 results of retailer Walmart, which earlier this month joined the ranks of US companies valued at $1tn or more, putting the Nasdaq-listed company in an elite club alongside the likes of Nvidia, Apple and Tesla.
UK January CPI
Wednesday 18 February Inflation in the UK remained sticky in 2025, hovering well above 3% for the last eight months of the year. However, consensus estimates suggest that CPI eased to 3% in January, down from 3.4% in December. The market is pricing in a roughly 90% probability that the Bank of England will cut interest rates twice in 2026 in a bid to bring inflation down to the Bank’s 2% target and boost economic growth from current low levels. The UK’s GDP grew just 0.1% in the final three months of 2025, according to official data released on 12 February. Despite the weak growth backdrop, sticky inflation and the prospect of rate cuts, the pound has strengthened against the dollar since November’s lows near $1.30. climbed past $1.38 in late-January, before slipping back to current levels of around $1.36. However, the pair could be on the cusp of further gains. The technical chart below indicates that GPB/USD may have entered a bull flag – a continuation pattern that can signal further upside potential. A measured move from this bull flag could see GBP/USD rise towards $1.41 or $1.42, an area the pair last touched in 2021. To get there, though, sterling would need to pass through strong resistance at $1.38, near the January high. To the downside, support is at $1.3450.
