MNI Global Morning Briefing

     LONDON (MNI) - To end what has been a busy week of data are three key

releases from Europe, the UK and the US. These are the January ACEA car

registrations at 0700GMT, January UK retail sales data at 0930GMT and the

January US industrial production at 1415GMT.

     Unsurprisingly, car registrations have been weak in Europe. December was

the fourth consecutive month that the EU passenger car market declined.

Registrations fell by 8.4% y/y in December after falls of 25.3%,7.3% and 8.0% in

the three months before December.

     Retail sales shrunk in December by 0.9% m/m and 1.3% excluding fuels. The

MNI median is pointing towards a modest recovery in January, at 0.2% m/m both

including and excluding fuel.

     ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure is participating in an forum on

International Economics in New York, from 1315GMT.

     Over to the US and Industrial production is expected to rise 0.2% in

January after a 0.3% rise in December. Factory payrolls rose by 13,000 in

January, while auto production jobs rose by 1,000 and the factory workweek

shortened slightly to 40.8 hours. The ISM production index rebounded sharply to

60.5 in the current month from 54.1 in the previous month. Utilities production

is expected to partially rebound in the month after a 6.3% plunge in December,

as temperatures returned to below-normal levels in January, in some cases to

record lows. Mining production is forecast to dip after gain in the previous two

months. Capacity utilization is forecast to hold steady at 78.7% in December.

     Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank president Raphael Bostic speaking at the

Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama, starting at

1455GMT.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com