The welter of global macro-economic data on Thursday provided a Rohrschach test for investors – depending on your personality, you could find reasons for optimism or extreme pessimism.

Given what we know of the psychology of central bankers, however, we can hazard some guesses as to what they saw in the data. That could be critical entering a few days that could show extreme volatility, with US jobs data followed next week by meetings for the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.