Today is shaping up to be quite a loaded day on the financial markets in terms of reports.
The day began with China publishing its latest GDP reports, which show a decrease to 6.1% against the forecasted (and previous reading of) 6.2%. This is not altogether too surprising, considering the prolonged trade conflict with the United States. However, industrial production in China increased across all paragraphs, which is good news. Retail sales were also up at 8.0%.
The United Kingdom also released a retail sales report (minus the auto industry), which was worse than expected. There have already been several disappointing reports from the UK this week, indicating the country is likely to enter a period of economic recession soon, unless the Bank of England acts quickly to support the economy with rate cuts.
At noon, we received the eurozone CPI, which shows inflation rates remain steady at 1.3%. Though this result is in line with forecasts, and is thus not bad, it likely won’t support the euro very much because inflation is still very far from the ECB’s desired target levels.
A bit later today there will be a massive influx of housing market and industrial production data from the United States. The University of Michigan will also be releasing its January sentiment report, which is something market analysts keep a keen eye on.
