Welcome to the first easyMarkets weekly outlook for 2017, starting this Monday 2 January. We’ll be looking at the week’s key economic events on the financial calendar covering Monday to Thursday. Be sure to catch up with our Friday morning report that looks back at how the events played out and with a look at Friday’s events. This week we have important data coming out of the two largest economies in the world with manufacturing and employment data coming out of the US along with the FOMC report. And for the Eurozone, the Consumer Price Index and ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts are due.
Event: US ISM Manufacturing PMI
Date: Tuesday 03 January 2017 at 15:00 GMT
Markets affected: EUR/USD
Trending hashtags: #usd, #pmi
The US economy continues to show good growth with last November’s Purchasing Manufacturers Index (PMI) outstripping expectations of 52.1 and coming in at 53.2. This showed significant growth from the October figure of 51.9 – also good considering that anything over 50 is considered positive for the US dollar. Analysts are forecasting more growth under new President Donald Trump, who promised spending on infrastructure and trade deals more favourable to domestic manufacturers. The market is predicting more growth for the December figure out on Tuesday with a consensus of 53.5.
Event: EU Consumer Price Index (YoY, December)
Date: Wednesday 04 January 2017 at 10:00 GMT
Markets affected: EUR/USD, EUR/GBP
Trending hashtags: #eur, #cpi
The Eurostat will be releasing the Consumer Price Index for the Eurozone on Wednesday morning. This accounts for the changes in buying trends and inflation in the region. Last reading came in at 0.6% and analysts are expecting December’s figure for the year-on-year change to be even better at 1%. Meanwhile, Core CPI, measuring price changes in a basket of goods (not counting food, alcohol, tobacco and energy due to price volatility), is expected to remain the same as the previous figure of 0.8%.
