Market Movers
In Germany we expect ZEW-expectations to have improved to 56.5 in March from 53.0 in February and there even could be some upside risk to our forecast. German data have been very strong recently and the significant positive market impact from the first few days of QE could also have boosted sentiment among the economists and financial market analysts participating in the ZEW-survey.
In the US focus will be on housing starts and building permits for February. The NAHB-housing market indicator for March released yesterday declined for the third month in a row and the big question is to what degree this weakness is related to the unusually bad weather in the North-eastern states. There probably will be a negative impact from the bad weather but building permits should be less sensitive than housing starts.
ECB chief economist Peter Praet will at 11:45 CET participate in a panel discussion on the subject 'Is Europe ready to foster growth' in connection with a conference in Frankfurt. ECB president Mario Draghi will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel for discussions at 11:00 CET in Berlin ahead of the EU summit later this week but no statement is planned from the meeting.