Following the volatile week just past the upcoming seems very quiet, however, there are important scheduled events. The Bank of England will have its monetary policy meeting when the monetary policy committee will vote for the benchmark interest rate, as usual. Reserve Bank of New Zealand will also release its monetary policy statement for December, with its interest rate decision.
On [B]Monday[/B], not much volatility is expected. There are just a few economic indicators coming out that are unlikely to stoke much interest from investors. In Eurozone, the Sentix Investor Confidence for December will be out. In the US, the Labor Market Conditions Index for November and the Consumer Credit Change for October will be released. The BoE Governor Mark Carney will appear at the European Parliament’s ECON committee in Brussels, but not sterling affecting comments are expected. In the second half of the trading session, the Japanese GDP for the third quarter will be eyed, as the market’s forecasts want Japan to exit recession (two consecutive GDP contractions) and maintain a flat growth. Overnight, the National Australia Bank will release its indicator regarding Business Confidence.
[B]Tomorrow[/B], in the European morning, the final GDP growth is expected to show a moderate expansion by 0.3% in Q3, slightly below last quarter’s 0.4% growth. Note that Eurozone’s economic growth slows down for a steady expansion of 0.4%, quarter over quarter, the first two quarters of the year.
Going to UK, the manufacturing and industrial production for October will attract some interest. Later in the day, the GBP traders will remain tuned for the GDP growth for the three months to November.
Meanwhile, in US the JOLTS Job Openings for October and the Economic Optimism for December will be released. Later in the day, the Japanese Machinery Orders in October and the Australian Westpac Consumer Confidence for December will be monitored.
On [B]Wednesday[/B], German October’s Imports, Exports and Trade balance will be released. In US, Wholesale Inventories for October will be published. During the Asian session, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will announce its interest rate decision, followed from a monetary policy statement and a press conference.
During the night, the Melbourne Institute will release the Consumer Inflation Expectations for Australia. A while later, the labour report that will be published is expected to have an impact on the Australian dollar. The unemployment rate is predicted to rise slightly to 6.0% from 5.39% before while the employment change is forecasted to be -10k.
On [B]Thursday[/B], the attention turns to UK where the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England will vote for the interest rates. The policymakers are expected to keep the same voting pattern of 8-1 in favour of unchanged rates and a rate hike respectively. The BoE minutes will be released a while later and will be eyed carefully.
The US jobless claims will be out, as usual, later in the day, as well as the monthly budget statement for November.
On [B]Friday[/B], the German inflation rate will be out early in the morning. The ECB will announce the targeted LTRO. The UK inflation expectations will attract considerable attention. Going to US, Retail Sales are forecasted to have grown by 0.3% in November from 0.1% before. The preliminary Michigan consumer sentiment index for December is expected to decrease to 91.0 versus 91.3 prior.