Federal Reserve is starting its two-day meeting today. A Bloomberg survey says that a number of economist do not expect Fed to announce a third round o large-scale asset purchases this week.

Eighty-eight percent of economists say the Federal Open Market Committee will refrain from starting new purchases at a two-day meeting beginning today in Washington. Forty-eight percent say the FOMC will announce the buying at its Sept. 12-13 meeting, according to the July 25-27 survey of 58 economists.

“There is a lot of hope that both the Fed and the European Central Bank will take actions to support their economies,”said Mouton. “There is a risk that the market will be disappointed if the Fed’s announcement doesn’t meet investors’ expectations.”

Todays unemployment and other economic numbers coming out of Eurozone are not good.

Italian unemployment of 10.8% was worse than forecast. Eurozone’s rate was 11.2% and German unemployment change was 7K, better than forecast.

German retain sales declined by –0.1% on month-over-month basis, its third such monthly decline and short of expectations. French m/m consumer spending also disappointed at 0.1%. Italian preliminary m/m CPI came at 0.0% whereas the expectations were 0.3%, indicating that deflation is becoming a problem,

On tap today are US m/m Personal Spending, Income Growth and Consumer Board Consumer Confidence. In June personal spending rose by 0.1% and income by 0.4%. CB Consumer Confidence is expected to fall.