Eurozone retail sales and UK services PMI amongst market movers today – Danske Bank

In euro area, euro area retail sales figures for July are due out and are going to be amongst market movers for today, according to analysts at Danske Bank.

Key Quotes

“Retail sales have shown monthly growth in every month in H1 17, with the exception of April. As consumer confidence remains high, we still expect to see positive growth in retail sales of 0.3% m/m in July. Also, PMI services for Italy and Spain are due today (alongside final PMI services for euro area, Germany and France). The most important event this week is still the ECB meeting on Thursday.”

“In the UK, the PMI service index for August will give us more information about how the economy is doing in Q3 following sluggish growth in the first half of the year. We expect GDP growth to continue around a quarter percentage per quarter.”

“In the US, the Fed's Brainard and Kashkari (both quite dovish) are speaking today, which may give us some insight ahead of this week's FOMC meeting into whether the disappointing inflation and wage growth figures are affecting the Fed's plan to deliver another hike this year.”