mask Week Ahead |Powell’s Testimony and Key data from US

25/ 02/ 2018

Week Ahead |Powell’s Testimony and Key data from US

26th February 2018 - 02nd March 2018

Monday

  • USD New Home Sales & Dallas FED Manufacturing Business Index
  • GBP MPC Member Cunliffe Speech

A rather slow start to quite an eventful week. After a dull morning the markets can expect movement with the release of New Homes Sales data from US in the evening. This is an important measure of housing market conditions in the USA.

Then comes the release of Dallas FED Manufacturing Business Index which is related to the manufacturing sector in Dallas, USA. The day will end with a speech by UK MPC member Cunliffe. The speech will be scrutinized for his idea about the effects of rising import prices on inflation.

Tuesday

  • EUR Industrial Confidence, Economic Sentiment Indicator, Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices
  • USD FED’s Powell Speech, Durable Goods Orders & Housing Data

Tuesday’s assumed to be the biggest volatile day of the week, as Jerome Powell will be making his first appearance as the FED chair. He will testify before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington DC on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report.

By Mid-day, we will see Industrial confidence from euro zone along with few economic surveys. These surveys will give an indication as to how confident the consumers are about the euro zone economy. Then the focus shifts to Germany with the release of Harmonised indexes which shows the German inflation.

Then comes the testimony from FED Chair Jerome Powell which will be scrutinized for last week’s monetary policy statement and economic outlook. This will be followed by Durable Goods which measures the cost of orders received by manufacturers for durable goods such as motor vehicles and appliances. The day will end with the release of two indexes which shows the housing price movements in USA.

Wednesday

  • GBP Gfk Consumer Confidence
  • EUR Gfk Consumer Confidence, Unemployment Change & Rate, Consumer Price Index
  • USD GDP Annualized, Inflation Data & Pending Home Sales

Another busy day follows with key reports from Euro zone and USA. Early morning, we will see the release of Gfk consumer confidence from UK, which measures the level of consumer confidence in economic activity in UK. The same report will be released from Germany around mid-day. Then comes the release of Unemployment Change and Unemployment Rate from Germany which measures number of unemployed people in Germany. This will be followed by Inflation from whole Euro zone which captures the movements in the price of goods and services. This report will be closely monitored by investors to get hint on future rate hikes.

Then the focus shifts to US with the release of GDP Annualized report which shows the monetary value of all the goods and services. Then comes the release of Core personal consumption which is the average of the amount of money the consumers spend in a month on durable goods, consumer products, and services. The day will end with Pending Home sales which captures the trends in the residential housing market activities.

Thursday

  • EUR Markit Manufacturing PMI, Unemployment Rate
  • GBP Markit manufacturing PMI, Consumer Credit, Mortgage Approvals
  • USD Core Personal Consumption Expenditures, Personal Income and Spending, Continuing and Initial Jobless Claims & ISM data

By Mid-day we will see the release of Markit manufacturing PMI from Germany which captures business conditions in manufacturing sector. Then comes the release of Euro Zone Unemployment rate which is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force.

These reports are followed by Markit Manufacturing PMI from UK along with consumer credit and mortgage approvals. Then the focus moves to USA with the release of several data figures. First up will be Core Personal Consumption Expenditures which is an average amount of money that consumers spend in a month. This will be followed by Personal Spending and Income figures.

Continuing and Initial Jobless claims for Feb will be released then onwards, while the day will end with ISM data which shows business conditions in the US manufacturing sector.

Friday

  • EUR Retails Sales & Producer Price Index
  • GBP PMI Construction

First up will be retail sales from Germany. This is a measure of changes in sales of the German retail sector. Then comes the release of Producer Price Index which measures the changes in commodity prices. The day will end with the release of UK PMI Construction which shows business conditions in the UK construction sector.