OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS
The dollar index (DXY00 -0.32%) is down -0.33% at a 4-week low. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is up +0.49% at a 1-month high on an upbeat economic assessment from the ECB who said, “the Eurozone economic expansion continues to be solid and broad-based across countries and sectors.” USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -0.42% at a 1-week low.
Mar 10-year T-note prices (ZNH18 -0.11%) are down -4.5 ticks.
The ECB in its monthly Economic Bulletin said, “the Eurozone economic expansion continues to be solid and broad-based across countries and sectors with underlying inflation expected to rise gradually over the medium-term.”
Japan Nov industrial production rose +0.6% m/m, stronger than expectations of +0.5% m/m.
Japan Nov retail sales rose +1.9% m/m, stronger than expectations of +0.7% m/m and the biggest monthly increase in 13-months.
U.S. STOCK PREVIEW
Key U.S. news today includes: (1) weekly initial unemployment claims (expected -5,000 to 240,000, previous +20,000 to 245,000) and continuing claims (expected -32,000 to 1.900 million, previous +43,000 to 1.932 million), (2) Nov wholesale inventories (expected +0.3%, Oct -0.5% m/m), (3) Dec Chicago PMI (expected -1.9 to 62.0, Nov -2.3 to 63.9), (4) EIA weekly Petroleum Status Report, (5) Treasury auctions $28 billion of 7-year T-notes.
