Traders braced for busy week with new data out
THIS morning GFT expects a positive start for the major European indices. Our call is for the FTSE 100 index to open 10 points higher at 5,602, with similar gains for the German DAX 40, up 15 points to 6,226 and the French CAC 40, up 14 points to 3,706.
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, traders will be bracing themselves for a busy schedule. Both the UK and Eurozone publish their PPI and PMI data. We also have figures for industrial production in the UK.
The MPC and ECB both meet this week. No changes in interest rates are expected and we will probably need to wait until the MPC minutes are published to gain any indication as to the likelihood of further quantitative easing in the UK.
Looming at the end of the week is the US Non-Farm Payrolls report. The payroll figure itself is expected to be flat, with the unemployment rate inching up to 9.7 per cent. The market will look for clues to the payrolls data from the publication of the ADP employment report on Wednesday and initial claims on Thursday.
On the corporate side, US third quarter earnings season kicks off this week. Alcoa will be amongst the first to announce, when they update the market on Thursday.
Mark Outten, Senior Dealer GFT Global Markets Uk Ltd.