The spotlight this week will be on the Federal Reserve and Bank of England policy meetings on respectively Wednesday and Thursday. On the macro data front the spotlight will be on Eurozone and UK preliminary PMI data for September.
Monday 20th September
Eurozone: European Central Bank Board member Schnabel to speak.
Tuesday 21st September
Australia: Reserve Bank of Australia to release minutes of policy meeting.
Switzerland: External trade data (August).
Eurozone: European Central Bank Board member de Guindos and Enria to speak.
United States: Building permits and housing starts (August).
Wednesday 22nd September
Australia: Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Bullock to speak.
United States: Federal Reserve policy meeting, statement, updated projections and press conference. The Fed is expected to keep its policy rate unchanged with the big question whether it will announce when and by how much it will slow its monthly asset purchases. Chairperson Powell has implied that the Fed would start tapering its QE program before year-end but it could conceivably delay any material announcement till its November policy meeting.
Thursday 23rd September
Switzerland: Swiss National Bank policy meeting. The consensus forecast is that the central bank will keep its policy rate unchanged at -0.75%.
Eurozone: Composite PMI (September, preliminary data). This timely index of economic activity in the Eurozone was broadly stable in July and August around the 59-60 mark and is expected to have weakened only marginally in September.
United Kingdom: Composite PMI (September, preliminary data). This timely index of economic activity in the United Kingdom has weakened every month since May. In particular it fell 4 points in August, despite the removal of most social distancing restrictions, to 55.3 – its lowest level since February.
United Kingdom: Bank of England policy meeting. The consensus forecast is that all nine Monetary Policy Council (MPC) members will vote in favour of keeping the policy rate unchanged at 0.10% and the total size of Gilt purchases at £875bn. However, MPC member Saunders could once again vote in favour of the Bank of England cutting short its QE program as he did at the previous policy meeting.
United States: Initial jobless claims (week ending 23rd September).
New Zealand: External trade data (August).
Friday 24th September
Eurozone: German Ifo Business Climate Index (September).
Eurozone: European Central Bank board members Lane and Elderson to speak.
United Kingdom: Bank of England MPC member Tenreyro to speak.
United States: Federal Reserve Chairperson Powell to speak.
