Market movers for the week ahead - Rabobank

Analysts at Rabobank suggest that in the spotlight this week is new Fed Chair Powell, who will be giving the semi-annual Humphrey Hawkins testimony to Congress tomorrow and that key talk and Q&A is likely to set the overall market tone.

Key Quotes

“Will we get a clear indication that the Fed is leaning in a more hawkish direction as fiscal stimulus kicks in? Or will it be yet more interminable “yes, but-tery”. Recall that the gold standard for this kind of thing was set by Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan, who once famously quipped “I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I said,” as well as “I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” If only listening to the Fed, and trying to work out how many rate hikes we get this year, were as easy as one, two, three/Xi.”

“Ahead of that, today we hear from Bullard and Quarles from the Fed, as well as Draghi from the ECB. There are also US new home sales, and overnight European time we get Kiwi trade data.”

“Tomorrow it’s German CPI and US trade, wholesale inventories, and durable goods ahead of Powell.”

“Wednesday sees China’s official PMIs and Indian Q4 GDP; Thursday a further slew of global PMIs and another look at US GDP; and Friday Japanese unemployment, and Canadian GDP.”