It’s shaping up to be a busy couple of days for markets, with a number of announcements due for release. Meanwhile, political movements in the US and France still make waves for markets.

A somewhat quiet day for data releases, with most of the attention turning to geopolitical events. The data set for publication for today includes: New Zealand Credit Card Spending, Japanese All Industries Activity, Swiss UBS Consumption Indicator & Credit Suisse Economic Expectations, US Crude Oil Inventories and finally, Canadian Retail & Core Retail Sales.

Tomorrow will be a much busier and crucial day for markets with both the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank releasing their monetary policy decisions. As Japan and Europe are still in the midst of economic recovery, both central banks have maintained very accommodative monetary policy. Japan has negative interest rates, while Europe has interest rates set at zero. The problem with such an expansive policy, is that the effects on the economy are wearing off. There have been calls for a tightening of monetary policy, particularly in Europe, as there are signs of the economy strengthening. Part of both central banks’ monetary policy includes the purchase of government and corporate bonds. Many critics have called for the ECB to cut back bond-buying further and faster than what they are currently. However, leaders of both central banks have been reluctant to tighten monetary policy in the near term.

Other figures due for publication tomorrow include: Australian Import Prices, Swiss Trade Balance, German Gfk Consumer Climate & Prelim CPI and UK CBI Realised Sales. Finally, the US will be reporting Durable & Core Durable Goods Orders, Unemployment Claims, Goods Trade Balance, Prelim Wholesale Inventories, Pending Home Sales and Natural Gas Storage.

Elsewhere around the globe, the build-up continues for the second round of the French elections, with both candidates campaigning hard for voters that voted for candidates who didn’t make it past the first round. Donald Trump is also planning to release details about his tax reform and also the repatriation of corporate funds held in overseas accounts.