A big day of announcements, with the most important announcements coming in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The most important announcement is that of the US Fed Reserve’s interest rate decision. This much anticipated decision will be watched keenly by markets around the world. While all the experts expect the Fed Reserve to raise interest rates, any deviation from that thought will surely cause markets to move. The Fed Reserve is expected to also release its economic projections report which gives a more detailed account of Fed Reserve Members’ thought regarding monetary policy going into the future. A short time after these announcements are made , Fed Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, is expected to hold a press conference.

On the announcement front, the US lead the way once again, while the UK also has some important data releases.

The US is releasing a swathe of data including: Retail & Core Retail Sales, PPI & Core PPI (Producer Price Index), Capacity Utilisation Rate, Industrial Production, Business Inventories and Crude Oil Inventories. Retail figures are crucial in determining the strength of the retail sector and consumer spending. The PPI figures relate to the price changes in goods and services sold by producers (ie the manufacturing sector). The Capacity Utilisation Rate also relates to the manufacturing sector and is an important gauge in measuring the percentage of available resources used by the manufacturing sector (the more capacity utilised, the stronger the manufacturing industry). Industrial Production is important as it reflects the strength of the industrial sector.

The UK is releasing data including: Average Earnings Index, Claimant Count Change, Unemployment Rate, while BOE Governor, Mark Carney, is due to speak later tonight. All of the UK data set for release is labour market/employment related. These figures are particularly important as we head into uncertain times after the Brexit vote.

Elsewhere, Australia is releasing New Motor Vehicle Sales data, Japan is releasing Revised Industrial Production figures, Europe is releasing French Final CPI & Industrial Production figures, and finally Switzerland is releasing PPI and ZEW Economic Expectations data.