What are the main events for today?

The European session is going to be pretty empty on the data front with no market moving releases. The main events will be all in the American session when we will get a few US economic indicators and Scott Bessent’s confirmation hearing before Senate at 15:30 GMT/10:30 ET.

13:30 GMT/08:30 ET – US Jobless Claims

The US Jobless
Claims continue to be one of the most important releases to follow every week
as it’s a timelier indicator on the state of the labour market.

Initial Claims
remain inside the 200K-260K range created since 2022, while Continuing Claims
continue to hover around cycle highs although we’ve seen some easing recently.

This week Initial
Claims are expected at 210K vs. 201K prior, while
Continuing Claims are seen at 1871K vs 1867K prior.

13:30 GMT/08:30 ET – US December Retail Sales

The US Retail
Sales M/M is expected at 0.6% vs. 0.7% prior, while the ex-Autos M/M measure is
seen at 0.4% vs. 0.2% prior. The focus will be on the Control Group figure
which is expected at 0.4% vs. 0.4% prior.

Consumer spending
has been stable which is something you would expect given the positive real
wage growth and resilient labour market. We’ve also been seeing a steady pickup
in consumer sentiment which suggests that consumers’ financial situation is
stable/improving.

Central bank speakers:

• 09:00 GMT – ECB’s Patsalides (dove – non voter in Jan)
• 22:00 GMT/18:00 ET – ECB’s Centeno (dove – voter)

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.