FYI | Dec 19 2008
By Andrew Nelson
Normally, writing a what’s happening article for the week of Christmas would be a very brief exercise, but there’s plenty on the cards from North America and Europe and remember, the Chinese and Japanese don’t take Jesus’ birthday off either. Again, leading into the holidays we would normally see big news put on the back burner until after New Year, but if the last few months of hectic volatility have taught us anything, it’s that Thomas Jefferson was right: “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”.
Monday starts with two-day old news from the UK including total business investment for 3Q and December consumer confidence figures. The kiwis also kick off what will be a busy week for them, putting out 3Q current account and 4Q consumer confidence numbers. The Bank of Japan releases its monthly report and in Australia we’re looking at new motor vehicle sales.
There’s nothing on the domestic corporate calendar.
Tuesday sees two big reads from London, with both the 3Q GDP and current account reads released the night before. The kiwis also have another busy day, with their 3Q GDP numbers and result from the BC-McDermott-Miller consumer confidence survey due out.
There’s nothing on the Australian economic calendar, but there are eight stock at least that will be trading ex dividend.
Wednesday is Christmas Eve and it starts with a deluge of data out the night before in Europe and the US. From the Eurozone we’ve got industrial new orders and current account reads, while from the US there’s 3Q GDP, November existing and new home sales and December reads on Consumer Confidence, October results for the house price index and the December release form the Richmond Fed. From Japan there’s the merchandise trade balance for November.
Thursday is Christmas and the Americans are committed to keeping at it. The day starts with overnight reads on November personal income, durable goods and the US Core PCE Deflator. The Japanese put out the BoJ monetary policy meeting minutes for November, housing starts and construction orders. Otherwise, NZ, Australian, European, UK and US markets are all closed. Merry Christmas!
Friday, Boxing Day, sees a host of data from Asia including November jobless rate, CPI, IP and retail trade reads from Japan. We’ll also get industrial profit numbers from China. Otherwise, NZ, Australian, European, and UK markets are all closed.
That’s it for next week. For more detail check the calendar on the site. Also, for subscribers, check The Week Ahead, which will be up on the site Monday morning for details out until markets resume more normal trading after the first week of the New Year. This report will be unlocked and available on the site for non-subscriber on Tuesday.
Until then…. Happy Holidays from me and the rest of the FNArena team!
