It looks set to be another interesting week ahead for financial markets with a good mix of central bank speakers and data coming into play as the week progresses. Asian trading sessions will experience a drop in liquidity with several markets enjoying the Lunar New Year holidays – China is off all week – but it will be full steam ahead for the other time zones, especially on Tuesday when we have the latest CPI update out of the US. It will be a busy week for Sterling traders with the BOE Governor speaking on a couple of occasions in addition to no less than 4 key UK data releases.
Both China and Japan are off for the first day of the week and it is a quiet day with no tier 1 data releases scheduled, although we do hear from some key central bankers during the day. The initial focus in APAC will be on New Zealand with RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr delivering his Financial Stability Report. Later in the day, we hear from the FOMC’s Bowman and Barkin before the Bank of England’s Governor Andrew Bailey speaks at the UK’s premier university – Loughborough.
The Asian session starts with the focus again on the land of the long white cloud with the Inflation Expectations data due out in New Zealand. The European session sees the first major UK data release of the week in the form of the employment data release before the focus moves to Switzerland for CPI numbers. However, the main event of the day, and probably the week, will be the US CPI data release early in the New York session.
It’s a quiet start to the day on the calendar with nothing of note scheduled in the Asian session. However, there is a heavy UK focus again in the European day with the key CPI data due out in London before the Bank of England’s Bailey testifies in front of the Economic Affairs Committee at the House of Lords. The New York session is set to be a quieter affair today although we do have input from FOMC member Michael Barr when he speaks in Washington DC.
The focus will again be on the antipodes on the Asian market open, although this time it is Australia’s turn for the attention with the release of employment data early in the day. Once again, there is tier 1 data due out of the UK in the London session, this time in the form of the GDP data and we are also set to hear from ECB President Christine Lagarde when she speaks in Brussels. There is a raft of key US data due close to the New York open with the Retail Sales, Empire State Manufacturing and weekly unemployment claims data all released simultaneously. These updates are followed later in the day by the Industrial Production numbers.
New Zealand is a very early focus for the market with the RBNZ’s Adrian Orr speaking in Hamilton. There is little else scheduled for the APAC session, but we have the 4th major data release out of the UK for the week once Europe opens with the Retail Sales numbers due out in London. We have more US inflation data scheduled today in the form of the PPI numbers which are then followed by the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment and Inflation expectations data to round off the week.
