US Retail Sales Projected to Stay Unchanged in November

US Retail Sales Projected to Stay Unchanged in November

The Bureau of the Census reports US retail sales for October today at 13:30 GMT. Analysts expect the measure of retail sales to come in flat at 0.0% after a rise of 0.4% in September. This monthly indicator details consumer expenditures within the economy and has been prepared based on data from more than 5,000 retailing operations through various lines of business.

It's fair to say that the performance of retail sales data will be closely watched since this data can be a good indicator of where inflation is headed and gauge overall economic activity. A stable reading, or one that appears higher than expected, could be a signal of greater consumer confidence and spending. Consumer spending increases inflation. This has the potential to affect future monetary policy from the Federal Reserve.

On the contrary, below-par outcome or decline might be seen as indicative of slowed consumer spending, which would lead to somewhat lower inflation expectations. It could have an influence on the market sentiments over the dollar and thereby weaken the value of the short-term dollar. Of course, in the end, it depends on how much data is in line with market expectations and overall trends.

Eurogroup Meeting to Convene today

The Eurogroup Meeting is to be the assembling of all the member states of the European Union. The meeting is less formal yet highly potent due to its occurrence just before the holding of the ECOFIN Meeting. The members of the Eurogroup are the finance ministers whose voting rights are limited to only those issues that specifically fall under the umbrella of the euro.

The decisions made in this meeting are likely to impact the euro for some time to come and may have implications for the short-term prognosis of the eurozone economy. In case some agreements on fiscal policies or reforms are achieved from this meeting, it may exert a positive impact by bolstering confidence in the euro. However, in case disagreements prevail or no action takes place, the market sentiment regarding the euro is likely to weaken. So, at the end of the day, it will be a case of the ultimate effect drawing from how the decisions mirror expectations coming in from both financial markets and economic analysts.