The ruble is climbing
The currency is up 0.45% at 65.0397 per dollar as of 7:39 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, Brent crude prices are higher by 0.2% at $47.17 per barrel.
In the longer-term view of things, a Deutsche Bank team led by Elina Ribakova believes that when it comes to the ruble, "the worst of deleveraging seems behind us."
"We expect Ruble to appreciate to 61.5 against the dollar by end 2016 and 57.5 by end-2017 assuming oil price of $45 per barrel in 2016 and $50 per barrel in 2017," they wrote in a note to clients.
"The balance of payments flows will be supportive in our view. We expect current account surplus to be near 3% in coming years and therefore monetary policy as well as external factors will be key for ruble forecast."
As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as 7:47 a.m. ET:
- The British pound is little changed at 1.3199 against the dollar after the UK jobless claims unexpectedly rose. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed 2,400 people claimed jobless benefits in July, above the 1,800 claims that economists had anticipated.
- The euro is little changed at 1.1225 against the dollar after French CPI rose 0.3% month-over-month in August, as expected, and Italian CPI rose 0.2% month-over-month in August, also as expected.
- The Indian rupee is stronger by 0.4% at 66.891 per dollar after India's wholesale price index hit a 2-year high. Producer prices rose 3.74% year-over-year in August but missed the 4.01% print that economists had forecast. This report "supports our view that there is little scope for further monetary loosening," argued Capital Economics' Shilan Shah.
- The US dollar index is down by 0.2% at 95.49 on yet another quiet data day. The Department of Energy's oil inventory data will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
- The Japanese yen is down by 0.1% at 102.68 per dollar.
- The Australian dollar is up by 0.2% at .7480 per dollar.