Greater London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/17/2010 -- Financial spread betting expert Joshua Raymond, Market Strategist at http://www.cityindex.co.uk, looks at EU market activity around the FOMC and retail sales on 14th December:
“Investors were slow to come to the fore on Tuesday after strong gains on Monday and important US Retail Sales data due out in the afternoon. We also have the FOMC decision out later tonight after the European closing bell and whilst no change in stance or language is expected by the market, there is the usual investor anxiety heading into the decision.
We have seen some degrees of profit taking in the mining sector which is to be expected having seen the miners lead the charge higher for Indices yesterday and with a degree of uncertainty remaining over the potential for a Chinese interest rate hike before the end of the year. Weakness in shares of BHP Billiton and Lonmin has been key lags on the FTSE 100 today as a result.
In terms of individual stock movers in Europe, Whitbread is one of the worst performing stocks today, falling 2.5% as investors reacted to a downgraded in stance from Panmure Gordon saying that it does not expect consensus expectations to be raised.
Retail Sales eyed
We could see some added volatility in the early part of the afternoon’s session when US Retail Sales for November is announced. The market is expecting sales to slow from October’s surprising surge of 1.2% to 0.6% last month. October saw sales surge far beyond market expectations and this gave the markets a bit of a lift. Were we to see a similar outperforming tone it could provide the markets with an added sense of confidence as we head into the Christmas period.
German ZEW beats expectations
We saw little stock market reaction but the Euro did get a health boost from a better than expected jump in German economic sentiment, which rose from 1.6 to 4.3. The positives to come from this reading were however kept on a bit of a leash after current conditions index failed to rise as much as the market had expected, coming in at 82.6.”
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