3 numbers to watch: ECOFIN, Industrial Production, Housing Starts

Eurozone finance ministers, who will reconvene in Brussels Tuesday, have requested that Spain takes its deficit cut commitments a step further, but also agreed to a lend EUR 30 billion of the 100 billion bailout by the end of July and that the EFSF/ESM will be used to recapitalise financial institutions directly instead of via the Spanish government (thereby avoiding an increase in Spanish debt-GDP). Focus will likely be in further news from the Eurozone today amid a rather light calendar where UK Industrial Production and Canadian Housing Starts are among the more interesting ones.

• EU-27 finance ministers meet in Brussels (07:00 GMT expected): Further pressure was put on Spain yesterday to come up with more public sector spending cuts and Prime Minister Rajoy is indeed expected to unveil a third round of measures within a couple of days. It is not all bad news for Spain, however, as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker stated that an initial EUR 30 billion of the 100 billion total with "be mobilized as a contingency in case of urgent needs in the Spanish banking sector." Today all 27 finance ministers of the European Union will participate in a meeting chaired by Cyprus, but after yesterday's news we do not look for much today.
• May UK Industrial Production (08:30) to accelerate its decline? Though data have pointed to a better Q2 compared to the first quarter when the economy shrank 0.3% q/q we are not necessarily going to see an expanding economy in Q2 (as also indicated by the NIESR GDP Estimate out at 14:00) which read -0.1% in April and 0.1% in May). Today's Industrial Production report is not expected to change that outlook with consensus calling for a -0.2% reading month-on-month for an acceleration to -2.1% y/y from 1%. Manufacturing is not expected to do much better with analysts seeing a 0.1% decline m/m (-1.9% y/y).

• Jun. Canadian Housing Starts (12:15) - more of the same or going higher?: after a brief surge out of the two-year range of approximately 200,000 to 244,000 in April, starts fell back in May. Building Permits, however, have sped up recently to 6.9% y/y and 14.3% 6m/6m annualised and point to some further improvements in Housing Starts in the coming months. It is a volatile series though and for the June report consensus is not optimistic with a 205,000 forecast for a 3.1% drop m/m.