It was a volatile week for global financial markets last week, and the week ahead has the potential for even more significant moves across various products. There are key rate decisions from the Fed, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England, in addition to a plethora of important tier 1 data releases and crucial earnings reports from major tech firms. Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon are all set to report earnings this week, and investors are expecting increased volatility around these updates.
The week starts off slowly with a very quiet Monday, but momentum on the event calendar soon picks up and continues through to the final trading session, with the Non-Farm Payrolls from the US closing out the week on Friday.
Here is our usual day-by-day breakdown of the major risk events this week:
It’s a relatively quiet start to the week in terms of economic event risks, with little on the calendar in terms of tier 1 data across all three trading sessions. Asian markets are expected to start on the front foot after a strong day on Wall Street on Friday, but expect more rangebound conditions as investors look ahead to the risk events over the rest of the week.
The calendar picks up a bit on Tuesday with the German states reporting preliminary CPI data in the European session. The New York session sees the first tier 1 updates from the US, with both the CB Consumer Confidence number and the JOLTS Job Openings data due out.
It is a huge day on the calendar on Wednesday. The early focus in the Asian session will be on Australia, where both the CPI data and retail sales numbers are due out, before focus moves north to Japan for the much-anticipated Bank of Japan rate call and associated updates. The European session has the key core CPI numbers due out for the Eurozone before New York opens, bringing several updates.
The US has ADP Non-Farm, Employment Cost Index, and Pending Home Sales numbers all due out early in the session, while we also have the Canadian GDP data out north of the border. The trading day is then closed out with the latest update from the FOMC, and although no move is expected with the rate, traders will be looking for signs that a cut will come at the next meeting.
It is a quieter day in the Asian market on Thursday with nothing of note on the schedule. The focus will be firmly on the UK markets once Europe opens, with the Bank of England set to update investors on its latest rate call. The New York session sees yet more tier 1 data out of the US, with the weekly unemployment claims numbers due out before the ISM Manufacturing PMI data is released.
There is more on the event calendar on Friday that could keep traders on their toes into the weekend. The Asian session is relatively quiet from a calendar point of view, but the focus will be on Switzerland once the London session kicks off with the release of key CPI data there. The main event for the day will come early in the New York session when the key job market data is released in the US, with the headline non-farm data due out alongside the Average Hourly Earnings numbers and the unemployment rate.
