Italian Manufacturing PMI registered 49.0 in November, unchanged from October’s 17-month low. Analysts were forecasting raise to 49.5 The index has now registered below 50.0 – signalling deteriorating business conditions – in three of the past four months. European part of the session on

Tuesday was marked by Spanish Unemployment Change figures. The number of unemployed in Spain stood at 4,512,116 in November. The registered unemployment declined by 14,688, beating market expectations on an increase by 21,300 the biggest decline in the month of historical series.

Wednesday brought Spanish and Italian Services PMI figures as well as Retail Sales data. Spanish Services PMI dropped to 52.7 in November from 55.9 in the previous month, its lowest reading for a year. Analysts were predicting small incline to 56.2. That said, activity still rose at a solid pace and output in the service sector has now risen on a monthly basis throughout the past 13 months.

Latest release in Italian Services PMI showed that it rose to 51.8, up from 50.8 in October,beating market expectations on smaller incline to 50.9. Italian services firms recorded a rise in business activity for the second month running in November, although a slight fall in new business and shrinking backlogs of work painted a gloomier picture of the short-term outlook.

In October 2014 compared with September 2014, the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade rose by 0.4% in the euro area (EA18). This was below anticipated increase by 0.6%. September retail trade fell by 1.2%.

Focus of the session on Thursday was on ECB interest rate decision and following Press Conference. At their latest meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively, what was largely forecasted.

However, euro was pushed higher after ECB President Mario Draghi said, at the Press Conference following rate decision, that the policy makers will wait until next quarter before assessing whether additional stimulus measures are required. He also added that ECB could alter “early next year the size, pace and composition of our measures." For traders who were expecting moves as soon as today,this was a hawkish statement. Also, Draghi once again repeated that inflation remains low, GDP is on the downside, while unemployment rate is high.

Next week markets will be looking at:

French Industrial Production (Wednesday 8:45)

Targeted LTRO (Thursday 11:15)

Industrial Production (Friday 11:00)