“A peak performance trader is totally committed to being the best and doing whatever it takes to be the best. He feels totally responsible for whatever happens and thus can learn from mistakes. These people typically have a working business plan for trading because they treat trading as a business” – Van K Tharp

1. Greece Anti-Austerity Syriza Party Win — Party leader Alexis Tsipras has already moved to form a coalition that will work to reverse years of austerity measures imposed on Greece by the Troika. The euro dropped to a fresh 11-year low after initial results came out, falling as far as $1.1098 vs. the dollar, although it is now up 0.4% at $1.1244 amid speculation that the victory won’t push the nation to exit the currency bloc.
2. S&P Cuts Russia’s Rating to Junk — Bloomberg, Russia’s foreign-currency credit rating was cut to junk by Standard & Poor’s, putting it below investment grade for the first time in a decade. The penalties have locked Russian corporate borrowers out of international debt markets and curbed investor appetite for the ruble, stocks and bonds.
3. Denmark Cuts Deposit Rate for Third Time in Two Weeks — MarketWatch, the Danish National Bank late last week cut its deposit rate by 15 basis points to negative 0.5% in an effort to prevent the krone from strengthening too much against the euro. It’s the third time in less than two weeks the central bank has slashed its deposit rate, following persistent upward pressure on the krone’s peg to the euro resulted from European Central Bank launched a quantitative-easing program and the Swiss National Bank ditched its euro cap.
4. US GDP Downshifts to 2.6% Rate in the Fourth Quarter — MarketWatch, the value of all goods and services produced by the U.S. — grew at a 2.6% annual clip in the fourth quarter. For all of 2014, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.4% rate, slightly faster than the 2.2% gain in the prior year. Consumer spending was a major positive in the fourth quarter, expanding 4.3%, the fastest pace since before the financial crisis. However, growth was pulled down by weaker business spending, a drop in federal government spending and net exports.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: