Market Focus

On Wednesday, February 14, 2017, attention should be paid to the US economic calendar, specifically on data on the basic retail sales index and retail sales. Retail sales data reflect the monthly retail sales in the US excluding cars. These indexes are very important indicator of consumer spending and the of the US economy’s development tempo .

• Analysts predict that the growth of the base retail sales index in February will be 0.2%, which is lower than the previous value at the level of 0.4%. In annual terms, the growth rate will be 2.0%, which is lower than the previous value at 2.2%.
• The volume of retail sales in February will show growth at 0.2%, against the decline in the previous month at -0.3%.

In case of data release within the forecast, the US dollar may show ambiguous dynamics, on the background of which I expect the movement of the US currency within 40 points against competitors.

Alexander Sivtsov