A big, big week in Australia (see separate story), a big, big week in the US with President Trump’s COVID-19 infection and more cases hitting his re-election teams and markets suddenly more jumpy than they have been in the past month, when they weakened on fears of COVID -19 and a sagging pace of recovery from the slump.
In Australia, there’s the most important federal budget for decades tonight and before that the monthly monetary policy meeting of the Reserve Bank with a statement at 2.30 pm.
Outside Australia though, it’s a quiet week for data ahead of the start of the quarterly earnings season in the US next week.
In the US, the services conditions activity survey September (yesterday) remained strong, labour market hiring and openings data for August (the so called JOLTS, tonight) will be watched closely for further improvement; the minutes from the Fed’s last meeting which confirmed inflation average targeting will be released Wednesday and a speech by Fed Chair Powell (also tonight) will be watched for any further sign of the central bank’s easier monetary policy stance.
US trade numbers will also be looked for after the last figures showed the US deficit rising to the highest since 2008.
In Europe, a picture of robust UK growth has contrasted with a eurozone economy slowing to near-stagnation.
Service sector activity reports for September will add to the emerging picture, as will industrial production numbers for Germany, Italy, France, and Spain, as well as a GDP update for Britain.
In Asia, the services activity reports will be released for China on Friday (the private report from Caixin – the official government reported showed a strong rise in service sector activity).
China remains on holidays until Thursday.
There’s also export data for a number of countries and Japan’s machinery orders are also updated.
