Traders’ Diary: Everything you need to get ready for the week ahead

Last week, the benchmark ASX 200 index ended the week 1.20% higher, while in the US, the S&P 500 fell by 1%.

The week started with a slew of economic data from China.

While most central banks are hiking rates, the People’s Bank has cut the 7-day reverse repo rate from 2.1% to 2%, with another 10 basis point cut in its medium-term lending facility from 2.85 to 2.75%.

The Chinese Communist Party seems to be increasingly concerned about the domestic property market and other indicators like retail sales, which fell to a 2.7% growth vs consensus of 5%.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has reportedly instructed provincial officials to bolster their pro-growth measures to boost economic activity,

Across the sea, Japan’s CPI rose to 2.4%, an 8-year high. Food prices increased 3%, while energy prices climbed more than 16% from a year earlier.

Over in the US, the much awaited July FOMC meeting minutes were released, which indicated that Fed members considered slowing down rate hikes going forward.

But it also showed that Fed members remain committed to raising rates until inflation cools meaningfully.

Experts believe it’s a near certainty the Fed will raise rates again when officials next meet on September 20, but the question is by how much.

With an unusually long eight-week gap between meetings, the Fed will have plenty of data to digest including jobs and inflation data.

Across the Atlantic, data on Friday showed that Euro zone inflation reached a new record high of 8.9% year-on-year in July. Of that, 4.02% was the result of higher energy prices.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has an inflation target of 2%, and their next monetary policy meeting will be on October 27. The ECB rose its cash rate by 50bp last month, the first hike in 11 years.

Back home, Australia’s unemployment rate is at a 48-year low as it fell from 3.5% to 3.4% in July.

According to ABS data last week, the job market added 20,000 new jobs in July.

“The fall in unemployment in July reflects an increasingly tight labour market, including high job vacancies and ongoing labour shortages, resulting in the lowest unemployment rate since August 1974,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS.

The Economic Calendar for this week

Source: Commsec and Investing.com

Highlights for the week includes the gathering of global central bankers and policymakers for an economic symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Australia and New Zealand

TUESDAY
ANZ and Ray Morgan Consumer Confidence Index

WEDNESDAY
Speech by RBA governor, Philip Lowe
Detailed skilled job vacancies for July

THURSDAY
Detailed labour force for July
Counts of Australian businesses for June

Global

MONDAY
China loan prime rates

TUESDAY
US S&P global purchasing manager surveys for August
US new home sales for July
Euro manufacturing PMI for August
Euro services PMI for August
Euro consumer confidence for August

WEDNESDAY
US durable goods orders for July
US pending home sales for July

THURSDAY
US GDP for the June quarter
US personal income and spending for July
US wholesale inventories
US PCE core deflator