EUR

EUR

The eurozone inflation rate remains well below the European Central Bank’s 2% target.Prices rose by just 0.8% on an annual basis in the euro area driven down by falling costs of telecommunications services and transport fuel. It won’t ease concerns that Europe is sliding into deflation  despite ECB chief Mario Draghi insisting last week that they are not witnessing a repeat of Japan’s problems in the 1990s.Europe’s battered auto industry is recovering after a grim year. ACEA, the industry body, reported that December showed the biggest jump in car sales since 2009, before the eurozone debt crisis exploded. Sales were 13% higher than a year earlier, making December the fourth month in a row where car sales rose on an annual basis.

US

The number of US citizens filing ‘continuing’ unemployment claims jumped back over the three million mark to 3,03m, up from 2.856m, in the seven days to 4 January. That’s the highest level since early July. But in brighter news, the number of new claims for jobless benefit fell by 2,000 last week to 326,000, a six week low. The US labour market is under scrutiny after December’s Non-Farm Payroll showed that a meagre 74,000 new jobs were created across the economy last month.

The US Consumer Prices index jumped to 1.5% on an annual basis, from 1.2% in November Wage rises have been modest in America (like in the UK and much of Europe) meaning little inflationary pressure due to increased consumer demand.

Today

We have retail sales figures in the UK at 09.30 expected to show a 2.6% rise for 2013. At 10:00 we have Europe’s construction output for the month of November. In the afternoon we have building Industrial Production for December as well as consumer sentiment for January  in the US.

Key announcements:

09:30- GBP- Retail Sales (YoY) expected to rise from 2.6% from 2%

10:00- EUR- Construction Output (Dec)

13:30- USD – Building Permits (Dec) expected to fall slightly

14:15- USD- Industrial Production (Dec) expected to decline from 1.1% growth to just .3%

14:55- USD- Reuters Consumer sentiment (Jan) rise from 82.5 in December to 83.5