Major Market Moving Events of The Week

The US Dollar, last week, recovered from a nine-week low after the July Fed meeting minutes showed that almost all Fed officials supported tapering asset purchases in any of the next three policy meetings remaining for 2013. However, the gains for the US Dollar were capped as the minutes did not mention specific month as to when the central bank is set to reduce the $85 billion-per-month bond purchase plan. Moreover, Friday’s disappointing US housing data (July new home sales) also helped US Dollar to pull-back from weekly high.

With very little in terms of economic data that could bring some clarify to the Fed tapering uncertainty, scheduled for release in the week ahead, market’s prime to focus is likely to be on the Preliminary estimate of US GDP for the second quarter of 2013. The Advance estimated showed that the US economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.7% in second quarter of 2013. However, on the back of recent better-than-expected trade data, the preliminary estimate, scheduled for release on Thursday, is expected to positively surprise the market by showing that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.3% in the second quarter of 2013, compared to 1.7% growth in the previous estimate.

Other Market Moving Economic Data Releases

US Durable Goods Orders –  This week’s economic calendar starts with the release of Durable Goods Orders in July, scheduled on Monday. After recording a gain of over 3% for three consecutive months, durable goods orders are expected to turn negative for the month of July. Meanwhile, core durable goods that excludes transportation items, is anticipated to show a rise of 0.6% in July following a flat reading in June.

US Consumer Confidence – The Conference Board (CB) is scheduled to released its Consumer Confidence Index for the month of August on Tuesday. In July the US CB Consumer Confidence Index fell short of consensus estimates and moderated to 80.3 from 82.1 in June. For the month of August, the index is projected to decline further to 79.6.

US Pending Home Sales – Key housing data, scheduled for release on Wednesday, features Pending Home Sales for the month of July released by National Association of Realtors. In June pending home sales declined by 0.4% but was still better than consensus estimates and now for the month of July, analysts anticipate a gain of 0.2%.

German Ifo Business Climate – The upcoming Euro-zone economic calendar highlights the German Ifo Business Climate, scheduled for release on Tuesday. After rising for three consecutive months indicating continuous expansion of business activity in Germany, Euro-zone’s largest economy, the German Ifo business activity index, after rising to 106.2 in July, is forecasted to show a further rise to 107.1 during August.

• This week’s economic data is unlikely to bring any clarify regarding the uncertainty over the timing of the US Fed scaling back the pace of its quantitative easing. However, second quarter GDP reading from the US could possibly lead to some volatile moves in the currency market during the week ahead.

• Original Article: Admiral Markets and hyper link Admiral Markets with http://www.admiralmarkets.com/