Money Minute Friday 13 December: election results day

By the time you watch this video, we should know the results of the UK's general election.

That's likely to be the dominant influence in UK markets today, particularly as there's little in the way of economic data released.

On the corporate front meanwhile, construction group Balfour Beatty issues a third-quarter trading update.The focus will fall on profit margins which the company is trying to boost towards the industry average and the company's order book.

We also get full-year results from the UK's largest ten-pin bowling operator, Hollywood Bowl.

Over in the US, we get retail sales figures for November.Markets always pay close attention to these.Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of US economic activity.Put simply, that means that healthy consumer spending means a healthy US economy.In turn, that's good news for the global economy as a whole.

Analysts expect to see a solid rise in sales, although unusually cold weather last month might have thrown a spanner in the works.