Tuesday preview: UK employment, US retail sales in the spotlight

(Sharecast News) - The market spotlight on Tuesday will be on the October Employment report due out in the UK. Consensus is for strong readings.

At 0700 BST the Office for National Statistics is expected to announce that the number of people employed rose by 163,000 over the three months ending on 31 October.

Despite that, the rate of unemployment is expected to have remained steady at 4.3%, although the year-on-year rate of increase in weekly earnings excluding bonuses is forecast at 5.0% after printing at 4.8% in September.

Key figures are also due out in the US covering retail sales and industrial production in November.

In the euro area meanwhile, investors' attention would be on the results of two closely followed confidence surveys, those from the Ifo and Zew institutes.

Tuesday December 17

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (EU) (10:00)

Business Inventories (US) (15:00)

Capacity Utilisation (US) (14:15)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

Industrial Production (US) (14:15)

Retail Sales (US) (13:30)

Retail Sales Less Autos (US) (13:30)

ZEW Survey (EU) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)

ZEW Survey (GER) - Current Situation (10:00)

ZEW Survey (GER) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)

FINALS

Chemring Group

IMSS

Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Softcat

EGMS

EJF Investments Ltd NPV

AGMS

Gfinity , GS Chain, Netcall

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Claimant Count Rate (07:00)

Unemployment Rate (07:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Softcat, Volution Group