Economic calendar: FOMC minutes in the spotlight

• European markets seen opening flat

• FOMC minutes in the evening

• Earnings reports from Nvidia, Target and Cisco Systems

In spite of decent gains booked by indices from the Asia-Pacific, futures markets point to a flat opening of the European cash session. Situation on the FX market looks calm with no large moves across major currency pairs. Commodities are climbing.

When it comes to economic data scheduled for today, there are a few noteworthy releases. Canadian CPI data or US housing market data failed to trigger big market moves recently but FOMC minutes will be watched closely. During its July meeting FOMC noted that progress has been made within the economy. While this progress was not enough to justify taper announcement then, minutes may shed some light on whether there was some discussion on the topic.

9:00 am BST - Poland, labour market report for July.

• Employment. Expected: 2% YoY. Previous: 2.8% YoY

• Wage growth. Expected: 8.9% YoY. Previous: 9.8% YoY

10:00 am BST - Euro area, CPI inflation for July (final). First release: 2.2% YoY

1:30 pm BST - US, housing market data for July.

• Building permits. Expected: 1610k. Previous: 1594k 

• Housing starts. Expected: 1600k. Previous: 1643k

1:30 pm BST - Canada, CPI inflation for July. Expected: 3.4% YoY. Previous: 3.1% YoY

3:30 pm BST - DOE report on oil inventories.

• Oil inventories. Expected: -1.2 mb

• Gasoline inventories. Expected: -1.8 mb

• DIstillate inventories. Expected: -0.3 mb

7:00 pm BST - FOMC minutes

US earnings reports

• Cisco Systems (CSCO.US) - after market close

• Lowe's (LOW.US) - before market open

• Nvidia (NVDA.US) - after market close

• Target (TGT.US) - before market open