A light one on the agenda in the session ahead
Happy Friday, everyone! After some signs of mild pressure on risk yesterday, US equities turned things around in the end only for the spat between the Treasury and the Fed to bring stock futures down again in trading today.
S&P 500 futures are off earlier lows but still down by 0.4% as Mnuchin's move to not renew the Fed's programs only adds to the pain of the fiscal cliff at the end of the year.
While there is reason to be optimistic on vaccine developments in the past two weeks, the next few months is going to still offer some challenges to the economy and in turn, will test the market's mettle and investors' appetite once again.
On that note, just be wary that Pfizer is expected to file for emergency-use authorisation with the FDA today and the news itself may lend to a mild knee-jerk reaction in risk.
Looking to the session ahead, it is still all about the push and pull this week as the dollar gave up gains in US trading yesterday and that puts the key technical levels from earlier in the week back in the spotlight.
The push and pull in risk continues as there is little on the data front to distract from that.
0700 GMT - Germany October PPI figures
Prior release can be found here. A lagging and proxy indicator of inflation pressures in the German economy. A minor data point.
0700 GMT - UK October retail sales data
Prior release can be found here. Retail sales activity in Q3 were stellar but is expected to slow down a little as we head into Q4, not to mention with tighter restrictions being applied in November as well set to weigh on consumption/spending. This should do little to tell us much of anything new given the current circumstances.
0700 GMT - UK October public sector debt data
Prior release can be found here. A general look at debt levels, which has been swelling as a result of the surge in borrowing to combat the fallout from the pandemic.
That's all for the session ahead. I wish you all the best of days to come and good luck with your trading! Stay safe out there.
