Yesterday’s BoE minutes didn’t come as a surprise, they decided to leave interest rates unchanged again. Other notes have shown that inflation is considered to subside eventually, ‘A further modest monetary stimulus would act to offset the softening in demand prospects and make it more likely that the inflation target would be met in the medium term.’

David Cameron has been attempting to reassure Wall Street’s big cheeses that Britain should be a top investment target, despite all the regulatory uncertainty around the City. He said that Britain would be at the centre of negotiations in the EU to make the regulatory framework acceptable.

Angela Merkel praised the ‘really robust’ recovery of the German Economy, mentioning the declining unemployment as a ‘small miracle’. She also said that there was no way out of the tax cuts for the foreseeable future and that the spending cuts were needed to restore a balanced budget, even in the face of the record low levels of support for the governing parties, she continued saying that the coming year was going to be difficult. Paris and Berlin have suspended voting rights for members who repeatedly break impending rules on fiscal discipline, however this still has not been able to resolve the differences between the countries.

The IMF have called for complete transparency with the European stress tests, they said yesterday that although the markets have taken a positive view of the tests thus far, ‘some uncertainty regarding the stringency of the tests is likely to remain’.

In the Federal Reserve’s speech yesterday Bernanke told Congress that the US economy was recovering but the future was ‘unusually uncertain’, he need more proof that there is deeper weakness in the economy before proceeding with more monetary policy. He reassured that the central bank will act to boost the economy if needed and answered questions on further easing. The Fed has not decided which path to chose out of; communicating more on interest rates in the future, cutting interest on bank reserves or expanding the Fed’s balance sheet.

Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill which has begun a year where hundreds of new bank rules need to be written by US regulators, Bernanke has supported this bill by saying it will put the US financial system on a ‘sounder foundation’. Leading shares broke a losing streak yesterday after upbeat corporate earnings from the U.S. paired with positive mergers and acquisitions sentiment created a rebound, led by commodities and banks.

Other than the already mentioned there are several pieces of important data coming out today, before the UK’s Retail Sales at 9:30 the EU and Germany have their PMI and later in the afternoon Consumer Confidence. The US are praying for the best with Initial Jobless claims and Existing Home Sales as well as another speech from the Fed. Canada also have their Retail Sales out at 13:30. Bearing all this in mind it looks set to create some market action.