European shares climbed on Friday alongside US futures and Asian equities as market sentiment has been given fresh boost by reassuring economic data from both China and the US. Investors who already welcomed the fact that US retail sales strengthened in December have also been surprised by solid Chinese data which topped estimates. Despite an unchanged GDP for Q4 2019, solid improvements in Industrial Production and Retail Sales have driven benchmarks to record highs at the end of the week.
However, today’s game isn’t finished yet as investors will now switch their focus to the inflation report from the eurozone due later today, where many investors will get the ability to guess what could be the next monetary move from the ECB. The IBEX-35 from Madrid is currently the best performer in Europe with the market now challenging its first resistance at 9,690pts. A break-up of this level could extend the current rally towards 9,760pts on a short-term basis.
