A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Kevin Buckland

Bets for a U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut next week sit unequivocally at the centre of the market’s focus right now, as does the murkiness of the economic data Fed officials depend on to make their policy decisions.

With questions over the health of the labour market front of mind at the Fed, the most important data point – monthly payrolls figures – will come in the middle of December instead of today, after the previous month’s numbers were never released at all.

That’s, of course, the result of the record-long government shutdown. But at least the Fed will get key data pertaining to the other side of its employment-nurturing, inflation-taming mandate today with the delayed release of the PCE deflator, among the

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