MNI European Morning Briefing

     LONDON (MNI) - The economic docket kicks off on Friday with the UK

Nationwide House Price Index at 0600GMT.

     German Import/Export Prices are also released at 0600GMT.

     Next on the schedule is French Consumer Sentiment data at 0645GMT, Housing

Starts/Permits data is published alongside this release.

     At 0700GMT Spanish Retail Sales will hit the wires.

     Markets will digest a raft of speeches from ECB members following the rate

announcement on Thursday, the ECB kept rates on hold and pledged to reduce the

pace of asset purchases to E30 billion per month until at least September 2018.

     At 0715GMT ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet will deliver a speech at

the 5th Frankfurt Conference on Financial Market Policy organised by Goethe

University's SAFE Policy Center, in Frankfurt.

     At 1045GMT ECB Supervisory Board member Ignazio Angeloni will participate

in a panel discussion at the 5th Frankfurt Conference on Financial Market

Policy, in Frankfurt.

     At 1100GMT ECB Governing Council member Jens Weidmann will speak at the

lecture program in the Embassy of Germany, in Paris.

     Across the Atlantic the first release of the day from the US is advance GDP

figures at 1230GMT. Analysts expected GDP to rise 2.7% in the advance estimate

for the third quarters, only slightly below the 3.1% increase in the second

quarter. Analysts will watch closely to see the impact of the hurricanes in

August and September. The key drivers are expected to be an auto-related boost

in PCE and an improved net export gap, offset by softer inventories and fixed

investment. The chain price index is forecast to rise 1.8% after a 1.0% gain in

the second quarter.

     On the docket for 1400GMT is the US Final Michigan Sentiment Index. The

Michigan Sentiment index is expected to be revised only slightly lower to a

reading of 101.0 from the 101.1 preliminary estimate, keeping it well above the

95.1 reading in September. Record stock market levels and the belief that August

and September's hurricane impacts were less than expected have lifted

confidence.

     Rounding off the day at 1500GMT and 1515GMT are the St. Louis Fed Real GDP

Nowcast and the NY Fed GDP Nowcast.

--MNI London Bureau; +44 203 865 3809; email: kieran.williams@marketnews.com