Markets are poised for this week’s interest rate decisions from central banks across all three of our major currency zones. The Bank of England (BoE), European Central Bank (ECB) and US Federal Reserve (Fed) will all be deciding on their rates over the course of this week.
Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets said that with the Fed, ECB and BoE all set to raise their rates by 50 basis points, attention in the US “is now shifting to what comes next against a backdrop of slowing growth, and doubts about the sticky nature of inflation, as yields edged back higher after US PPI came in higher than expected for November.”
Cabinet office minister Oliver Dowden will finalise contingency plans for the wave of strikes set to disrupt the UK over the Christmas period. It has been reported that those plans include sending in the British army to drive ambulances and staff borders at airports.
Following recent bribery allegations involving Qatar and European parliament officials, Belgian police arrested and charged four people with money laundering, corruption and participating in a criminal organisation on Sunday. Multiple items were seized in several searches across Brussels, including €600,000 in cash.
A recount of votes in a political race in Massachusetts has seen a state house of representatives flip from Republican to Democrat by a single vote. Kristin Kassner, Democrat, won against Lenny Mirra, Republican and five-term incumbent after a recount which took place earlier this week.
While last week was fairly a fairly quiet one for key data releases, the momentum picks back up and market watchers will see a variety of key releases across the board. In addition to the highly anticipated rate hikes from central banks this week, we’re also set to hear the UK’s inflation rate for November.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics will also release its inflation rate for November this week, while over in the eurozone, the Centre for European Economic Research will release Germany’s latest economic sentiment index.
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