Key Events In The Coming Week

The release schedule is relatively light in the current week, without major central planning meetings. Nonetheless, there will a number of speeches from US FOMC members at the annual American Economic Association meeting. In terms of economic data releases we have manufacturing surveys from the US (Tuesday and Thursday), China (Wednesday and Thursday) and Europe (Thursday and Friday). On balance, slightly softer prints are expected for most of these releases when compared to the previous data points. However, consensus expects US consumer confidence to pick up significantly in December. Also of interest: harmonized inflation numbers from Spain and Italy on Friday, as low inflation remains an issue for ECB policy. Consensus expectations are for a small increase in the former and decrease in the latter.

Monday, 30 December

Chile MPC minutes (Dec)
US Pending Home Sales (Nov): consensus +1.0%, previous -0.6%
Italy Business Confidence (Dec): consensus 99.0, previous 98.1

Tuesday, 31 December

US Consumer Confidence (Dec): consensus 76.3, previous 70.4
US Chicago PMI (Dec): consensus 61.0, previous 63.0
US S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index (Oct): consensus +0.9%, previous +1.0%

Wednesday, 1 January

China Manufacturing PMI (Dec): consensus 51.2yoy, previous 51.4yoy
South Korea Trade Balance (Dec): consensus +3.6bn yoy, previous USD+4.8bn yoy
Also interesting: Indonesia Trade Balance (Nov)

Thursday, 2 January

US Manufacturing ISM Survey (Dec): consensus 56.9, previous 57.3
US Construction Spending (Nov): consensus +0.6%, previous +0.8%
US Initial Jobless Claims: consensus 345K, previous 338K
Euro Area Manufacturing PMI (Dec, final): consensus 52.7, previous 52.7
China HSBC PMI (Dec): consensus 50.5, previous 50.8
UK Manufacturing PMI (Dec): consensus 58.4, previous 58.4
Sweden PMI (Dec): consensus 55.2, previous 56.0
Brazil Trade Balance (Dec): consensus USD+1.35bn, previous USD+1.74bn

Friday, 3 January

US Fed speakers: Bernanke, Plosser (FOMC 2014 voter)
Colombia MPC minutes (Dec)
Spain Harmonized CPI (Dec, flash): consensus +0.4%yoy, previous +0.3%yoy
Italy Harmonized CPI (Dec, flash): consensus +0.6%yoy, previous +0.7%yoy
Switzerland Manufacturing PMI (Dec): consensus 56.2, previous 56.5
UK Construction PMI (Dec): consensus 62.0, previous 62.6
Also interesting: US Motor Vehicle Sales (Dec), UK Mortgage Approvals (Nov), UK Nationwide House Prices (Dec)

Saturday, 4 January