ICMarket

The Week Ahead – Week Commencing 19 February 2024

If the risk event calendar is anything to go by, then it is set to be a quieter trading week ahead for investors. Asian markets will be buoyed by the return of Chinese markets and the consequent additional liquidity. Traders are expecting a pickup for stocks with the increased spending over the holiday and indicative rallies on the Hong Kong exchange in the last week. However, other regional markets will look to another hot inflation print on Wall Street which knocked US indices on Friday and are expected to open under pressure.

Here’s our usual day-by-day run-through of the major economies risk event calendar:

Set to be a very quiet start to the trading week with nothing of note on the calendar across all three of the trading sessions. Markets are likely to take the lead from Friday’s close in the US which saw risk off after another strong inflation number stateside.

The calendar does kick into gear from Tuesday with the Australian market in focus early on, with the release of the RBA’s Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes. This is swiftly followed by key updates from the PBOC when they announce any changes in their Loan Prime Rates. There is nothing of note on the board in the European session, but Canada will be front of mind for traders once North America opens with the release of the latest Canadian CPI data.

The Land Down Under again is set to dominate trader focus as the APAC session starts and the quarterly Wage Price Index data is released. Once again it is quiet regarding scheduled data releases for the rest of the day, and we have a long wait until one of the main events of the week when the FOMC releases its Meeting Minutes to the market.

 It is all about key PMI data today with both Flash Services and Manufacturing numbers due out across the globe, including, Australia, France, Germany, Europe, the UK, and the US. The New York session also sees the usual weekly unemployment claims numbers and the Existing Homes Sales data in the US in addition to the Canadian Retail Sales numbers released shortly after the open.

The APAC session sees an early focus on New Zealand with Retail Sales numbers due out there and traders are expecting reduced liquidity later with Japanese traders enjoying a long weekend as they celebrate the emperor’s birthday. Euro traders will pay close attention to the German Ifo Business climate data on the London open. Still, it is a relatively bare event calendar for the rest of the trading day to take us through to the weekend.