Thursday, October 28 is quite a big day for the financial markets, with lots of interesting data to look forward to.
First off, the Bank of Japan held its monthly monetary policy meeting earlier today. Considering there have been no major changes in the economic situation in Japan, the BoJ’s decision not to make any adjustments to the interest rate was expected.
Today there were also several important publications of fundamental reports in Europe. Spain pleased investors with higher-than-anticipated inflation for October, but also disappointed them with higher unemployment in the third quarter.
Germany also delivered unemployment data today. The national unemployment rate in October was 5.4%, as forecasted. Nevertheless, the unemployment change report showed that more people found jobs than anticipated this month, which is a good sign for the German economy.
Germany will also publish its monthly inflation data later in the day.
Another EU member state, Italy, also delivered mixed results in the way Spain did. Consumer confidence in October narrowly missed the forecast at 118.4, but business confidence was significantly better than anticipated at 114.9.
The eurozone-wide economic and industrial sentiment, as well as the consumer confidence for October were all in line with the forecasts.
But besides these reports, the most exciting news from Europe will come later today when the European Central Bank wraps up its monthly monetary policy meeting. The ECB is seen as the most dovish bank in Europe and is not likely to adjust interest rates or asset purchases at this meeting, but investors are still going to be curious about President Lagarde’s press conference later today.
There will also be a significant data dump from the United States today. As is typical of any Thursday, we expect initial and continuing jobless claims today, plus the four-week average. In addition to those, the US will also deliver its first GDP growth rate report for the third quarter and a PCE report for the same period.
Meanwhile, the US Congress continues to struggle with the Democratic Party’s latest spending bill. Dems want to tax the richest Americans a bit more seriously in order to raise the necessary revenue to invest in the American economy. However, resistance from Republicans and some more conservative Democrats prevents the bill from passing.
US President Joe Biden, who spearheaded the stimulus proposal, is set to appear in Congress in order to try and convince US legislators to move ahead with the bill.
As for the stock markets, today all major US indices are set to make more gains. The earnings season continues and investors are optimistic about the performance of the US tech sector in particular. Today Apple and Amazon will report their quarterly earnings.
