Eurozone February PMI survey data in focus today
Good day, everyone! Hope you're all doing well as we start working our way towards the European morning trade in a couple of hours. The aussie has been the notable mover in Asian trading after it jumped on the back of a more upbeat labour market report before being sent back down to earth as Westpac gave traders a sense of reality that it's not going to change the current RBA outlook.
Looking ahead, Eurozone data is back in focus today and the ECB as well as markets will be keeping a close eye on PMI survey data for further clues on whether or not the economic slowdown is dragging Q1 growth further down the drain. Do take note that the ECB meets next on 7 March i.e. two weeks from now.
0700 GMT - Germany January final CPI figures
Preliminary figures can be found here. Focus will be on the core reading but regardless, these are final readings so the release here should be rather muted in terms of impact.
0745 GMT - France January final CPI figures
Preliminary figures can be found here. Much like the German release, these are final readings so there should not be much - if any - market impact unless the figures heavily skews from initial estimates.
0815 GMT - France February flash manufacturing, services, composite PMI
0830 GMT - Germany February flash manufacturing, services, composite PMI
0900 GMT - Eurozone February flash manufacturing, services, composite PMI
The highlight of the European morning. The focus will be to see whether or not there is a continued slowdown or a surprise rebound in the readings here as traders will feed off the release here to price in expectations ahead of the ECB meeting in two weeks' time. In my view, steady readings will still lead to a more dovish pricing ahead of the ECB as recent economic data has been rather disappointing; but for today steady readings are what the euro may need to just hold its ground.
0900 GMT - Italy January final CPI figures
Preliminary figures can be found here. Much like the French and German readings above, these are final figures so the impact should be relatively muted.
0930 GMT - UK January public sector debt data
As this is the January reading, net borrowing is expected to show a surplus i.e. negative reading (part of the budget cycle) before returning to the fiscal deficit we have gotten used to over the years. The more important reading is to look at net debt as a whole and its relation to GDP but that hardly ever changes. A minor data point.
1230 GMT - ECB releases its account/minutes of the January meeting
This will be the minutes to the meeting here. Expect additional commentary to accompany the statement at the time but it's likely not going to offer much of anything new that wasn't communicated by officials since four weeks ago.
That's all for the session ahead before we get a slew of Canadian and US data to come in North American trading, including US durable goods orders. I wish you all the best of days ahead and good luck with your trading!
