Saxo Spotlight: What’s on investors and traders radars these two weeks on Oct 24? Central bank decisions, and earnings from tech giants and oil majors

Central banks gala – BOC, ECB and BOJ this week before focus turns to Fed and BOE next week

A series of central bank announcements will be key over the coming two week especially as there have now been hopes of a pivot following reports from Fed whisperer Timiraos at the WSJ suggesting that the November meeting will be used to discuss a slowdown of Fed tightening and dovish comments from San Francisco Fed Mary Daly. We have already had an indication of peak hawkishness from the Reserve Bank of Australia, and many other central banks remain of watch for a similar turn. However, another 75bps rate hike for the Fed at the November 2 meeting means there is still some room to run for that turn from other central banks.

The Bank of Canada decision this Wednesday is still a close call between 50 and 75bps, with the latest CPI remaining hotter than expected and some concern on CAD weakness as well which will likely get worse if BOC hikes by just 50bps ahead of Fed’s likely 75bps.

ECB’s rate hiking cycle has more room to run, and another 75bps increase in interest rates is expected at this Wednesday’s meeting.

Bank of Japan on October 28 will be key after an intervention on Friday saw USDJPY slide from 152 to lows of 146.23, reaffirming our view that any change in BOJ policy is unlikely. The only means they prefer to use as of now are unscheduled bond buying operations to ease the pressure on bond markets, and intervention in the FX markets to get rid of the speculative shorts. Markets will likely continue to test BOJ’s policy limits, especially with Tokyo CPI for October also due on Friday, October 28, and likely to zoom above the 3% mark.

Meanwhile, UK faces the biggest rate rise in three decades, with the Bank of England forced to step up in fight against inflation and defend the sterling at the November 3 amid the political and economic chaos that is ensuing. A 75bps rate hike is fully priced in, and some are also expecting a 100bps rate hike.

US GDP and PCE will be key for the Fed tone

The first print of third quarter GDP is due in the US on Thursday, before the PCE data comes out on Friday, October 28. GDP growth is likely to turn positive in Q3, with Bloomberg consensus expectations at 2.3% q/q from -0.6% previously. However, smaller imports will likely play a large role in the improved headline, with the rising business uncertainty and rapid Fed rate hikes mean that consumer and business spending will likely show some slowing. PCE data is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, and this is likely to continue to rise and come in at 6.3% y/y in September from 6.2% y/y in August. This will make Fed’s job of conveying a downshift in the pace of rate hikes, if they plan to do that, a lot tougher. 

A busy week with earnings from tech giants and oil majors

This week we have Microsoft (MSFT:xnas) and Google (GOOG:xnas) reporting on Tuesday, followed by Meta (META:xnas) on Wednesday and then Apple (AAPL:xnas) and Amazon (AMZN:xnas) on Thursday. Investors will likely monitor closely the cloud computing business outlook provided by Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, and Alphabet’s Google Cloud. Five of the western world’s biggest oil and gas majors, which have a combined market cap of more than $1 trillion, are reporting Q3 results this week. Shell (SHEL:xlon) and TotalEnergies (TTE:xpar) are due to report on Thursday while Exxon Mobil (XOM:xnys), Chevron (CVS:xnys) and Equinor (EQNR:xosl) will deliver their results on Friday. The market will be watching for their respective outlook on demand for oil and gas and whether the growing political pressure for oil companies to spend more on exploration and development will translate into improved capital investment appetite. In Asia, PetroChna (00857:xhkg) and CNOOC (00883:xhkg) are reporting on Thursday, and Sinopec (00386:xhkg) is reporting on Friday.

The deadline for Musk’s Twitter deal is on Oct 28

Elon Musk and Twitter face an Oc.t 28 deadline to finalize their USD44 billion deal that was first announced in April. If the takeover doesn’t go through, a Delaware Chancery Court judge will set new trial dates in November.

Key economic releases & central bank meetings

This week

Monday, Oct 24

US: S&P Manufacturing PMI (Oct, preliminary)
US: S&P Services PMI (Oct, preliminary)
Eurozone: PMI Manufacturing, Services & Composite (Oct, flash)
UK: PMI Manufacturing, Services & Composite (Oct, flash)
Japan: PMI Manufacturing (Oct)

Tuesday, Oct 25

US: Conference Board Consumer Confidence (Oct)
Germany: IFO Business Climate & Expectations (Oct)
UK: CBI Business Optimism (Oct)
Singapore: CPI (Sep)

Wednesday, Oct 26

US: New Home Sales (Sep)
US: 5-year treasury note auction
Eurozone: ECB M3 (Sep)
Australia: CPI (Sep)
Singapore: Industrial Production (Sep)

Thursday, Oct 27

US: Jobless Claims
US: GDP (Q3, 1^st revision)
US: Durable Goods Orders (Sep)
US: 7-year treasury note auction
Eurozone: ECB Meeting

Friday, Oct 28

US: Personal Income & Spending (Sep)
US: PCE (Sep)
US: Employment Cost Index (Q3)
US: Pending Home Sales (Sep)
US: U of Michigan Consumer Confidence & Inflation Expectations (Oct, final)
Germany: GDP (Q3)
Germany: HICP (Oct, flash)
France: GDP (Q3)
France: HICP (Oct, flash)
Japan: BOJ, end of policy meeting
Japan: Tokyo CPI (Oct)
Japan: Unemployment Rate (Sep)

Next week

Monday, Oct 31

Eurozone: CPI (Oct)
Eurozone: GDP (Q3)
Germany: Retail Sales (Sep)
Japan: Industrial Production (Sep)
Japan: Retail Sales (Sep)
China: NBS Manufacturing & Non-manufacturing PMIs (Oct)

Tuesday, Nov 1

US: JOLTS Job Openings (Sep)
US: ISM Manufacturing (Oct)
China: Caixin China PMI Manufacturing (Oct)

Wednesday, Nov 2

US: ADP Employment Change
US: FOMC Meeting
Eurozone: S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI (Oct, final)
Germany: Unemployment (Oct)
Germany: S&P Global/BME Germany Manufacturing PMI (Oct, final)

Thursday, Nov 3

US: Unit Labor Costs (Q3, preliminary)
US: Jobless Claims
US: S&P Global US Services PMI (Oct, final)
US: Durable Goods Orders (Sep, final)
US: ISM Services (Oct)
Eurozone: Unemployment Rate (Sep)
China: Caixin China PMI Services (Oct)

Friday, Nov 4

US: Non-farm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate & Average Hourly Earnings (Oct)
Eurozone: S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI
Eurozone: PPI (Sep)
Germany: Factory Orders (Sep)
Germany: S&P Global German Services PMI (Oct, final)

Key company earnings releases

Tuesday, Oct 25: Alphabet (GOOG:xnas), UPS (UPS:xnys), Microsoft (MSFT:xnas), Visa (V:xnys), Coca Cola (KO:xnys), Raytheon (RTX:xcse), Ping An Insurance 02318:xhkg),

Wednesday, Oct 26: Meta (META:xnas), Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY:xnys), Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO:xnys), Postal Savings Bank Of China (01658:xhkg), WuxiTec (02359:xhkg), ZTE (00763:xhkg), BAIC Motor (01958:xhkg)

Thursday, Oct 27: Apple (AAPL:xnas), Amazon (AMZN:xnas), Intel (INTC:xnas), Mastercard (MA:xnys), Shell(SHEL:xlon), TotalEnergies (TTE:xpar), China Galaxy Securities (06881:xhkg), China Life Insurance (02628:xhkg), Guangzhou Auto (02238:xhkg)

Friday, Oct 28: Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Abbvie (ABBV), Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium (01772:xhkg), Agricultural Bank of China (01288:xhkg), China Construction Bank (00939:xhkg), China Merchants Bank (03968:xhkg), ICBC (01398:xhkg), LONGi Green Energy Technology (601012xssc), BYD (01211:xhkg), Citic Securities (06030:xhkg), Haitong Securities (06837:xhkg)