The Swiss National Bank held its monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The Central Bank kept its LIBOR rate unchanged at -0.75% as widely expected. The Central Bank, however, lowered its inflation outlook.
The ECB was the next central bank to hold its monetary policy meeting. The Central Bank announced that it was ending its QE program but gave a cautious outlook on the economy and inflation prospects. The Euro did not react much to the news.
The NY trading session saw the U.S. import prices falling by 1.6% which was more than the forecast of a decline of 1.0%.
The Tankan manufacturing index was at 19, unchanged from the previous quarter. Economists polled expected manufacturing to fall to 18. The non-manufacturing index rose to 24 from 22 during the last quarter, and the data beat the estimates of a decline to 21.
The European trading session will see the release of the flash manufacturing and services PMI for December. The Eurozone’s manufacturing PMI is forecast to rise slightly to 51.9 while services PMI is expected to remain steady at 53.4, unchanged from the previous month.
The NY trading session will see the retail sales numbers out of the U.S. Core retail sales are forecast to rise 0.2% in November. This follows a sharp 0.7% increase the month before. Headline retail sales are expected to grow 0.1% on the month, slower than the 0.8% increase seen the month before.
Later in the evening, the flash services and manufacturing PMI for the U.S. will be released by Markit.
