It’s shaping up to be an exciting week for investors, with several central bankers scheduled to speak, the release of the FOMC Meeting Minutes, key data updates, and a rate decision from New Zealand. Global stock markets are trading at or near record highs, and investors are hopeful that the positive trend will continue. Given the current levels of most indices, this week could prove to be pivotal.
Here is our usual day-by-day breakdown of the major risk events this week:
Asian traders will be on alert from the start on Monday morning as Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak in the US afternoon, coinciding with the FX market opening. Later in the day, attention will shift to China with the release of the latest Prime Loan rates. The European session will be affected by several holidays across the continent. The US session has minimal data releases, but the day will be filled with speeches from five different Fed members.
APAC markets have little on the agenda today, although Yen traders will keep a close eye on Japanese PPI data out early in Tokyo. The early focus for the European session will be on the UK, where key job data is due out in London. The big US data prints kick off today early in the New York session with the PPI and Core PPI numbers due out, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak later in the day as well.
For Asian traders, the focus will be on New Zealand markets with the latest rate decision from the RBNZ. In the European session, investor attention will be on the UK with the release of CPI data and an update from the Monetary Policy Report Hearings. Although there will be no Fed member speeches on Wednesday, the release of the FOMC Meeting Minutes at the end of the New York session may explain the pause.
The Asian session begins with a focus on New Zealand as Retail Sales numbers are released, followed by an update from RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr as he testifies before the government on the Monetary Policy Statement. The next two sessions will feature a series of Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI numbers from France, Germany, the EU, the UK, and the US. The US session will also include the usual weekly unemployment claims data and New Home Sales figures.
The Asian session has little of significance scheduled for the last trading day of the week. However, early in the London session, the focus will be on the UK with the release of Retail Sales numbers. Later in the morning, SNB’s Thomas Jordan is expected to speak, which could cause some volatility in the franc. In the New York session, Canadian Retail Sales data and US Durable Goods numbers will be released early in the day, followed by the University of Michigan’s revised Consumer Sentiment and Inflation Expectation data, leading into the weekend.
