Fed meeting this week

The euro threatened to break lower against the dollar on a couple of occasions last week but it ended largely unchanged from the previous Friday trading just below the $1.18 level, while sterling also finished broadly flat on the week against the US currency at just over $1.3750. All of this meant that the single currency-pound exchange rate was unchanged too trading at a tad above 85.5p

US equity markets recovered from a wobble last Monday to end higher on the week overall, with the S&P 500 rising by 2% and closing at a new all-time high on Friday.  European stocks also gained on on the week though they have opened on the back foot this morning, so stocks may not be out of the woods just yet

German government 10-year bond yields are drifting lower again at the start of this week, having fallen last week, and are now just a touch shy of -0.45%. Equivalent US yields are also edging down and are currently trading at about 1.25%

The Composite PMIs for the Euro Area, UK and US were all comfortably in expansionary territory in July according to the flash readings published on Friday, suggesting the economies of all three are in recovery mode

The Fed holds a two-day monetary policy meeting this week (Tuesday and Wednesday). It is almost certain to keep both interest rates and the pace of its monthly bond purchases unchanged, though it is likely to step up its deliberations about when to begin scaling back its bond purchases

Data due this week include first estimates of US and Euro area second quarter GDP on Thursday and Friday respectively, while inflation data for both are scheduled for Friday