The Federal Reserve are Expected to Raise Interest Rates
Series of record finish on the Wall street which we have seen last week, is stimulating the European markets on the first trading day of the week. Asian markets also traded in a positive territory for another day on the back of the Iranian deal which shows that the sanctions could be reduced on Iran and this is pushing the crude prices lower.
It is important to emphasize that this is the seventh week for the equity market around the globe especially for the US markets which have closed in a successful region. The S&P 500 have closed above the 1800 mark for the first time on Friday. Having said that, volume could be weak this week as we are heading towards the Thanksgiving holiday season in the US and have a short week for trading. US retailers which have already warned about their earnings for the final quarter and said that they could see a shortfall. However, they would certainly hope to have a bumper during this week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
We do know that we had a good H1 for retail sales from Jan to July with the final reading of 2.2%, and this is despite the fact that we had a sequester cut. But ,since July, the retail numbers have been coming on a softer side, although the consumer confidence in the country was much stronger. Traders will watch the economic data for retail sales very closely which is due tomorrow. US pending home sales data is due at 15:00 GMT time today and the expectations are for 2.2% while the previous reading was -5.6%.
Back in Europe, the focus will be towards the salutary reminders of problems that Europe is facing when it comes to the unemployment rate especially for the euro area region. It is widely expected that the unemployment rate for the biggest economy of the Europe – Germany could remain at the lowest level among other Euro area at 6.9% as the country has clearly shown a remarkable signs of vivacity. Italian unemployment rate and the rest of the Europe is the main concern, where the unemployment rate is stubbornly high with the final reading of 12.5% and 12.2% respectively.
Leaving the equity market, Crude oil could certainly see punishing pressure once again this week, as we do have a an announcement about the Iranian nuclear deal with the potential of more positive outcomes in the pipeline. This has eased of supply concerns in the global market and the geopolitical premium is also at its lowest level.
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