DATA from both sides of the Atlantic will give clues this week on just how bad the eurozone economy is and just how sustainable is its U.S. counterpart.

    Europe offers a rate meeting from the European Central Bank (ECB) and a new slate of economic forecasts; the United States will release its influential monthly jobs data.

    Purchasing manager indexes for the past month will also show how businesses see things shaping up in the United States and Europe. One for China’s has already come in lower than expected.

    For many, the ECB meeting Thursday will be the main money event — despite the fact that it is not likely to be one of action or suspense.

    As usual, the attention will be on ECB President Mario Draghi’s nuances at the news conference that follows the likely non-move on rates. When it comes to the ECB, the news is often all about the journey rather than the destination.

    The inflation data let the ECB off the hook on taking any immediate additional action to combat the threat of deflation.

    At 0.4 percent in October, inflation is worryingly slight, but it is higher than it was a month earlier.

    ECB policymakers are also in no rush to move on to something new when they have not yet seen how their targeted loans and purchases of asset-backed securities are doing.

    Many in financial markets would like to see the ECB move to a full quantitative easing (QE) asset-buying program like the one the U.S. Federal Reserve has just closed. But as these words from ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny suggest, it is not likely.

    “I don’t think we should be pushed by the markets to produce a new program at every meeting we have.”

    (SD-Agencies)