This Week’s Economic Calendar – All Eyes on Fed & BoJ

In the week ahead, markets will be focused on Federal Reserve rate decision and the Bank of Japan interest rate decision & policy announcement on Wednesday.

After the ECB and the Bank of England rate decisions remained unchanged, investors will shift their focus to the Fed rate decision. Currently, markets are pricing a 12% chances of a rate hike on Wednesday and 45% for December according to Fed Watch Tool.

Investors will also be looking to Wednesday’s Bank of Japan policy announcement. The BoJ stimulus the Japanese economy with negative interest rate and 80 trillion yen a year. However, speculations are for further interest rate cut into a deeper negative territory.

Here are the main events for the upcoming week:

1. On Tuesday at 1:30 GMT, the Reserve Bank of Australia minutes meeting will be published. No policy changes are expected but hints for further decisions by RBA policymakers will be watched.
2. US Housing Starts and Building Permits will be released on Tuesday at 12:30 GMT. Building permits are expected to rise to 1.170 million from 1.14 million. Housing starts are expected to fall to 1.19 million from 1.21 million.
3. BoJ Interest Rate Decision & Press conference – The bank of Japan will release its interest rate decision on Wednesday at 3:00 GMT. BoJ governor Kuroda will hold a press conference at 6:00 GMT.
4. Federal Reserve Rate Decision – One of the biggest events of the year. Although chances for a rate hike are low at 12%, markets will keep an eye on Fed press conference for more information. Fed rate decision and FOMC economic projections will take action on Wednesday at 18:00 GMT. Later on, at 18:30 GMT, Fed chairman Janet Yellen will hold a 30 minutes press conference.
5. Eurozone Consumer Confidence will be released on Thursday at 14:00 GMT. The figure is expected to fall to -9.2 from -8.5 the previous month.
6. US Existing Home Sales will be released on Thursday at 14:00 GMT and expected to rise slightly to 5.45M from 5.39M.
7. On Friday at 7:30 GMT German Manufacturing PMI for September will be released. Forecast of a rise to 53.9 compared to 53.6 in August.
8. Canada CPI – On Friday at 12:30 GMT Canadian YoY inflation will be released and expected to rise to 1.5% compared to 1.3%, MoM also expected to rise to 0.2% after -0.2% the previous month.

Check out our real-time Economic Calendar