Eurozone GDP and trade amongst market movers today – Danske Bank

Analysts at Danske Bank suggest that the US-China high-level trade talks continue today and are going to be in focus today.

Key Quotes

“Look out for any statements from the two sides tonight when the negotiations conclude. We believe we will see some progress in areas like intellectual property rights and technology transfer, where China has already laid out new legislation that it aims to pass at the annual People's National Congress in March. Enforcement will be one of the tricky issues in the talks.”

“In the euro area, Q4 GDP is expected to show an unchanged meagre growth rate of 0.2% q/q. If so, it will be the weakest performance over two quarters since 2013. Although temporary effects from German car sector bottlenecks explain some of the growth drag, the overall economic environment, with a Chinese slowdown, Brexit and fragile risk sentiment in financial markets, also weigh on growth prospects. In light of the latest months' disappointing industrial production data and falling sentiment indicators, we do not believe the euro area economy picked up speed in the past quarter.”

“In the US, we will get initial jobless claims, which fell to a new cycle low last week. The US Employment Cost Index for Q4 is likely to add to the picture of rising wage costs. Chicago PMI is set to correct lower as it is still at a much higher level than other regional surveys and ISM manufacturing.”