The price of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers, as estimated by the producer price index, continued to fall in the year to April 2016.  Factory gate prices (output prices) for goods produced by UK manufacturers fell 0.7% in the year to April 2016, compared with a fall of 0.9% in the year to March 2016. Core factory gate prices, which exclude the more volatile food, beverage, tobacco and petroleum products, rose 0.5% in the year to April 2016, compared with a rise of 0.3% in the year to March 2016.

Wednesday's session was marked by UK job data. For April 2016 there were 737,800 people claiming unemployment related benefits. This was: 2,400 fewer than for March 2016 but 57,600 fewer than for a year earlier. Analysts were predicting increase by 4,000. The unemployment rate for those aged 16 and over for January to March 2016 was 5.1%. This was: unchanged compared with October to December 2015, but down from a year earlier (5.6%) and slightly lower than the pre-downturn trough of 5.2% for late 2007 to early 2008.

On Thursday UK Retail Sales data was released. The volume of retail sales in April 2016 is estimated to have increased by 4.3% compared with April 2015. The underlying pattern in the data, as suggested by the 3 month on 3 month movement in the quantity bought, increased by 0.3%. Compared with March 2016, the quantity bought in the retail industry is estimated to have increased by 1.3%. Analysts were predicting 0.6% increase. Average store prices (including petrol stations) fell by 2.8% in April 2016 compared with April 2015.

This week markets will be looking at:

Second Estimate GDP (Thursday 10:30)