Analysts from the National Bank of Canada note that in the US, the release of retail sales and CPI data will be watched closely.
"Gasoline prices rose at a steeper rate than usual in the month, a development that could translate into a 0.3% monthly increase of the headline index. This would allow the annual rate of inflation to rise three ticks to 2.4%. The core inflation rate, for its part, should have continued to be supported by the services sector, rising 0.2% m/m and 2.4% y/y. We'll also get December's U.S. retail sales report. Remember that, since Thanksgiving occurred late last year, the increasingly popular Cyber Monday sale event was pushed into December. This should have helped boost consumer outlays in the final month of the year. We expect both headline and ex-auto sale to have mustered healthy gains".