This will be an important week
for the market as traders expect key information. The following will be the
most important things to pay close attention to this week.
Federal Reserve
On Wednesday, the Fed will
conclude its two-day monetary policy meeting. The bank will then release the
first interest rates decision of the year and provide a guidance on what
investors should expect going forward. In this meeting, the bank is not
expected to rise interest rates but investors will want to know whether there
will be any changes to the previous guidance. In the December’s meeting, the
bank signaled that it will hike two times this year. In recent talks, a number
of members like Esther George have taken dovish sentiments. The Fed chair has
also signaled flexibility when making the rates decision.
Trade Talks
Last week, there was no major
news on trade. This week, this will change as president Xi’s senior economic
aide, Liu He visits Washington to follow-up on meetings that took place in
Beijing two weeks ago. He will hold talks with Robert Lighthizer and Treasury
secretary, Steven Mnuchin. While investors have cheered the ongoing talks,
there are concerns that they may not yield major concessions from China. It has
also been argued that even with a deal, there may be a difficult period in
enforcing the outcomes. These meetings will happen before the March deadline.
Earnings
This will be an important week
for corporate earnings as important companies release their fourth quarter
results. On Tuesday, Apple will be watched closely because of its recent
activity. In the third quarter earnings, the company revealed that it would
stop announcing the unit sales of iPhones. This was viewed as a sign that the
numbers were not that good. In recent weeks, the company has slashed its
guidance and reduced the prices of the iPhones, which is a sign that things are
not all that good. Other companies that will release results this week are
Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla, Alibaba, Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil, Novartis, Royal
Dutch Shell, and Chevron among others.
US Jobs Numbers
On Friday, the Labor department
will release the jobs numbers for January. These numbers will come after the impressive
jobs numbers released in the past month. Investors expect the numbers to show
that the economy added 160K jobs. This will be lower than the
previously-released 312K jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at
3.9% while wages are expected to rise by 3.2%. The average weekly hours are
expected to remain at 34.5. These numbers will shed a light to the possible
impact of the government shutdown. Another data that will be released will be
the fourth quarter GDP of the US.
Brexit
As the March 29 deadline
approaches, investors will pay a close attention to the Brexit talks. The hope
that a no-deal Brexit will be avoided has helped the sterling rise sharply in
the past two weeks. This means that the sterling is priced for perfection,
which exposes it to a risk of a sharp decline.
The post Week Ahead: Focus Will Be on Brexit, Trade, Fed, and Earnings appeared first on Forex.Info.