Quote:
‘Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man as twice its natural size.’ Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
The News:
EU leaders meet to discuss Russia/Ukraine gas dispute which starts to affect them.
The Numbers:
Greenwich Mean Time, with expectations and previous figures in brackets.
05:00 JP December Vehicle Sales –22.3% Y/Y versus –27.3% November.
08:30 CH December PMI (34 to 36 versus 35.2 November).
09:30 GB December Construction PMI (versus 31.8 November).
09:30 EZ16 (Slovakia joined this month) January Sentix Investor Confidence (versus –42.3 December).
12:30 US December Challenger Job Cuts (versus +148.8% November).
15:00 US November Construction Spending (-2.0% to –0.5% versus –1.2% October).
18:15 US Fed’s Yellen speaks on sub-prime mortgage crisis, San Francisco.
Late US December Total Vehicle Sales (9.8M to 10.5M versus 10.13M November).
23:50 JP December Monetary Base (versus +1.9% Y/Y November).
The Psychology:
High hopes that 2009 will be a much kinder financial environment than 2008’s carnage.
The Risk:
Russia New Year holiday today ahead of Epiphany tomorrow where several counties have holidays.
Today’s most interesting chart: Russian rouble
Devalued again, close to weakest ever at 31.94.
