There is that feeling that price pressures might end up becoming fairly sticky at around the 3% mark in Europe, especially after the December numbers here. Le Maire is mainly just doing some politicking here as he has always done, so I wouldn’t read too much into the above remark.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.

• Prior +0.1%; revised to +0.4%
• Retail sales -1.1% vs -1.5% y/y expected
• Prior -1.2%; revised to -0.8%

The monthly reading matches estimates, although it comes after a positive revision to the October reading. Here is the breakdown of the retail sales for the month:

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.

The Eurostoxx is now down 0.5%, DAX down 0.5%, and CAC 40 down 0.6% on the day. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures are also struggling and falling to session lows – down 0.4% on the day:

The selling from last week is continuing, even as bond yields are putting on a more tepid showing so far in European morning trade. 10-year Treasury yields are lightly changed at 4.045% at the moment.

But for equities, the story seems to be that traders and investors are still taking a breather after the new year. In the case of US stocks, last week’s decline was the first after nine straight weeks of gains. So, the declines for now are still nothing too impactful.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.