What you need to know before the open – 31/10
The Fed's decision last night to stick with its current stimulus level wasn't a big surprise, given the probable damage caused by shutdown.
US markets were dragged down, however, on the absence of discussion on shutdown, tight credit conditions and high interest rates.
Asian markets were cooled by the news, too, with Seoul shares edging away from a 27-month closing high today, and the FTSE is set to open down this morning.
We've already had some data in this morning, with the German GfK consumer confidence survey missing expectations, coming in at 7.0 for November, from October's 7.1 and expectations of 7.2.
UK nationwide house prices exceeded analyst expectations in October, at 1.0 per cent, after predictions of 0.7 per cent, from September's 0.9 per cent. Year-on-year for October, prices are up 5.8 per cent – higher than the expected 5.1 per cent and September's year-on-year increase of 5.0 per cent.
Key events:
- Italian unemployment for September at 9.00am. Expected unchanged at 12.2 per cent.
- Eurozone consumer price index for October year-on-year at 10.00am. Expected unchanged at 1.1 per cent.
- Eurozone unemployment rate for September at 10.00am. Expected unchanged at 12 per cent.
- Italian consumer price index for October at 10.00am. Expected at 0.4 per cent from -0.3 per cent.
- US initial jobless claims (25 October) at 12.30pm. Expected at 340,000 from 350,000.
- US Chicago purchasing managers' index for October at 1.45pm. Expected at 55.0 from 55.7.