Europe is the main focus for today as they release plenty of data for markets to digest. The US are also releasing a couple of pieces of important data.

The data out of Europe includes: Swiss GDP & Retail Sales, German Import Prices, Italian Monthly Unemployment Rate, Spanish Unemployment Change, European CPI & Core CPI Flash Estimate, European PPI and Unemployment Rate. There is quite a lot of employment-related data in among that list which will give markets a good indication of the strength of the respective economies within Europe. The employment market is a good reflection of the wider economy – a growing economy requires workers to keep up with demand. The CPI figures are important as they reflect inflation within Europe. Inflation is crucial in an economy as it reflects consumer demand and rising prices. Rising prices helps support growth – as long as the demand for the product or service is still there.

The US is reporting a few pieces of data, mainly jobs-related as well. The data includes: Challenger Job Cuts, Unemployment Claims and Natural Gas Storage. As with Europe, the jobs-related data is crucial in helping to ‘paint a picture’ of the overall jobs market. In the world’s largest economy that is under a new administration, it is vital that employment numbers are strong to maintain confidence within the economy. It is about this time that early patterns start to emerge within the economy about the direction of the new administration. The markets have reacted well to Donald Trump’s talk so far, but will the raw numbers back up that enthusiasm? Time will tell as markets eagerly await every piece of data.

Elsewhere around the world, the UK is publishing its Construction PMI figures and Canada is reporting GDP data.