A busy night ahead for markets as we head into the weekend, with the most important information emanating from the US.

Later tonight, the US is publishing several crucial pieces of data that are vital to track the health of the US economy. This data includes: CPI/Core CPI and Retail/Core Retail Sales. CPI is vital to the US economy as it reflects demand for products and services throughout the economy. With the Trump administration in full swing, it will be interesting to see if he has made any noticeable difference to these numbers, especially considering he ran his Presidential campaign on pro-growth policies. But as we have seen, the President has had a lot of trouble getting these policies implemented. Retail Sales are important as the retail sector forms such a large part of the US economy. It also reflects consumer’s willingness to spend their disposable income, which in turn, reflects consumer confidence. Other data set to be released by the US includes: Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment & Inflation Expectations and Business Inventories. Meanwhile, Fed Reserve Members Charles Evans & Patrick Harker, are due to speak.

Elsewhere around the world, Europe is publishing Industrial Production and French Non-Farm Payrolls and China is reporting M2 Money Supply and New Loans data sometime over the weekend. Finally, G7 Meetings conclude over the weekend.