Eurozone

What to watch during the week: US employment and Eurozone inflation

Posted on January 4, 2016 at 1:45 pm GMT

Coming back from the New Year’s celebrations, investors and traders are likely to find their plates full this week with interesting economic releases from around the world as well as geopolitical developments and currency and stock market moves from China. First of all, Friday’s nonfarm payrolls will mark the first really important economic statistic of the New Year out of the United States. Economic data following the Fed’s first rate hike on December 16 have not exactly been stellar and [..]

Forex Markets 2015/16: Annual Review & Outlook

Posted on December 24, 2015 at 9:52 am GMT

By all accounts, 2015 was the year of the dollar as the greenback surged against its major counterparts. The dollar was up around 10% versus a basket of trade-weighted currencies, with some of its strongest gains registered versus commodity currencies such as the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar, while it also gained around 10% versus the euro on policy divergence. Interestingly, the dollar’s gains were not evenly distributed throughout the year as the dollar index surged to a fresh [..]

Eurozone PMI points to strong fourth quarter on rising manufacturing activity

Posted on December 16, 2015 at 11:57 am GMT

Eurozone activity eased slightly in December as the services PMI registered a drop compared to November. But the flash reading remained well above 50, which separates expansion from contraction. Manufacturing saw a faster rise in output than services for the first time in over 12 months. The Markit flash estimate for manufacturing PMI rose to a 20-month high of 53.1 in December, up from 52.8 in November and above estimates it would stay unchanged. This wasn’t enough though to compensate [..]

Week Ahead – Fed lift-off could finally arrive; China, Japan and UK also in focus

Posted on December 11, 2015 at 12:44 pm GMT

The US Federal Reserve is expected to take centre stage next week as it meets for its December FOMC meeting and is likely to announce its first rate hike since 2006. However, China, Japan and the UK should not go unnoticed as key economic indicators are released for the respective countries. China will release its latest industrial production and retail sales data on Saturday even before the week has started. Industrial production is forecast to stay unchanged at 5.6% y/y [..]

Week Ahead – Bank of England and RBNZ meet; Japan GDP could get revised to positive growth

Posted on December 4, 2015 at 12:54 pm GMT

Central Bank meetings will continue into next week with the Bank of England and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand holding their respective policy meetings. Also to watch out next week are the Chinese trade data and Japanese GDP revision, which could show Japan avoided technical recession in the third quarter. German industrial production data will start the week on Monday. Industrial production is expected to rebound in October, and is forecast to rise by 0.7% m/m after shrinking by [..]

Week Ahead – ECB policy meeting and US nonfarm payrolls to take centre stage

Posted on November 27, 2015 at 9:13 am GMT

After weeks of signalling the possibility of extra stimulus in December, the European Central Bank (ECB) has raised market expectations of a major policy change next week in a bid to lift Eurozone inflation. Meanwhile, nonfarm payrolls numbers in the United States could be the last key data to seal the deal for a December rate hike. Before that though, Japanese industrial production figures for October should be interesting to watch on Monday. With signs of industrial output starting to [..]

Eurozone PMI points to activity rebounding to 4½-year high

Posted on November 23, 2015 at 11:26 am GMT

The latest Markit flash PMI readings for the Euro area have shown a surprise uptick in Eurozone activity in November. The flash reading of the composite PMI, which measures all activity across the Eurozone, rose to a 4½-year high of 54.4 in November from 54.0 in October. The figure was higher than consensus estimates of 53.9. There was improvement in employment, new orders, and backlogs of work, which all rose to 54-month highs. The services sector performed more strongly than [..]

Week Ahead – Eurozone PMI, US and UK 2nd estimate of GDP and Japan inflation to be watched

Posted on November 20, 2015 at 12:55 pm GMT

The key indicators next week will be the flash November PMI readings for the Eurozone and second estimates of third quarter GDP figures for the United States and the United Kingdom. But CPI and household spending data from Japan will also be closely watched. The flash November PMI data for the Eurozone will start the week on Monday. The manufacturing and services PMI are released for Germany, France and the euro area as a whole. Manufacturing PMI in the Eurozone [..]

Paris attacks unlikely to derail Eurozone recovery but may dent confidence, weigh on ECB policy

Posted on November 18, 2015 at 12:16 pm GMT

Last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, France, which have so far killed 129 people, have cast a shadow on the fragile recovery in the Eurozone. It is worth reminding that third quarter growth in the euro area came in below expectations and the Eurozone economy expanded by a meagre 0.3% quarter-on-quarter. The European Central Bank has already been signalling for weeks now that it will review its current stimulus measures at its next policy meeting on December 3 where it [..]