Economic calendar: ECB minutes among releases to watch

• UK retail sales data due in the morning

• ECB minutes unlikely to be a market moving event

Moods on the financial markets can be labelled mixed as equities gain and FX market shows risk-off attitude. Equity index futures currently point to a minor bearish price gap at the opening of the European session. UK retail sales data and ECB minutes are key releases scheduled for the European trading hours.

9:00 am GMT - Poland, industrial output for January. Expected: -0.4% YoY. Previous: 3.8% YoY

9:30 am GMT - UK, retail sales for January. Yesterday’s UK data showed bigger-than-expected accelerating in price growth with headline CPI surging from 1.3% YoY to 1.8% YoY (exp. 1.6% YoY). GBPUSD jumped on the news but lost ground later on. Retail sales data for January is expected to show headline growth of 0.7% YoY (previous 0.9% YoY) and will be another chance for the pound to move.

12:30 pm GMT - ECB minutes. Today’s ECB minutes release is unlikely to be a major market moving event. Christine Lagarde said that the bank does not plan to change its policy soon and the document is likely to support this view. Concerns over inflation and industrial activity may be repeated

1:30 pm GMT - US, jobless claims. Expected: 210k. Previous: 205k

4:00 pm GMT - DOE report on oil inventories. Expected: +3.8 mb. Previous: +7.46 mb

Central bankers’ speeches

• 10:30 am GMT - ECB Vice President Guindos

• 6:20 pm GMT - Fed’s Barkin

Noteworthy Wall Street earnings releases

• American Electric Power (AEP.US)

• Consolidated Edison (ED.US)

• Hormel Foods (HRL.US)

• Newmont (NEM.US)

• Southern Co (SO.US)