FYI | Dec 15 2007
By Greg Peel
At least Australia knows how to celebrate Christmas – there is absolutely nothing of any consequence on the calendar this week, except perhaps for the official release of the December RBA minutes on Tuesday.
The same is not true elsewhere however, and the Americans seem to be gluttons for punishment. Monday alone sees the third quarter current account and October TIC flows (a measure of domestic and foreign funds flowing in or out of US assets), as well as the December Empire manufacturing index and the National Association of Home Builders December housing index. Ouch.
The fun continues with November housing starts and building permits on Tuesday, while Wednesday brings November leading indictors, the Philadelphia Fed economic survey for December, and yet another go at the third quarter GDP (which was 4.9% at last count, but might change again). Friday is the measure of personal consumption expenditure (PCE), which is another indicator of inflation, along with the Uni of Michigan consumer confidence measure for December.
The Brits are also in for a fun week with the November CPI out on Tuesday and third quarter GDP on Thursday. The Bank of Japan makes a rate decision on Thursday, but no one expects it to move from 0.5%.
And that, my friends, is the last “The Week Ahead” for 2007 – a year we will not forget for a while. FNArena will shut down for two weeks after Friday, December 21, and return refreshed to face the world again on Monday, January 7. We will probably just sleep for two weeks.
So to all TWA readers we wish you a Merry Christmas and bullish New Year. I’ll personally be signing off on Friday with the last Wall Street report of the year.
