The Week Ahead: RBA to Hike, FTSE Big Beasts to Report

Here are the week’s key events: 

Monday  

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speaks after last week’s rate hike, whilst chief economist Huw Pill is also due to speak. These come after some inflation and factory orders numbers from Germany. After the closing bell we’ll have numbers from Activision Blizzard (ATVI), which is due to follow up on those soft numbers from Electronic Arts. Meanwhile Pinterest (PINS) reports after a choppy quarter for social media. 

Earnings: Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Pinterest (PINS) 

Tuesday 

The Reserve Bank of Australia faces accelerating inflation - CPI rose 7.8% year-on-year in the final quarter vs the forecast 7.6%. This latest rise in inflation puts more pressure on the RBA to hike interest rates further – another 25bps hike today looks assured now. The RBA hiked rates by a combined 300bps last year and markets expect one or two more 25bps this year before peaking. Rising inflation might force a reset in market pricing for the terminal rate. Fed chair Jay Powell speaks later in the US session. 

Earnings:  Gilead Sciences (GILD), Illumina (ILMN), BP (BP) 

Wednesday 

Disney (DIS) earnings will be the focus as the company reports its first quarterly numbers since the return of CEO Bob Iger. Earnings per share could decline by around a third but the success of Avatar and other titles is encouraging. A key focus for investors will be the future of ESPN, the strategy on streaming, and what impact activist investor Nelson Pelz might have.  

Earnings: Walt Disney Co (DIS), Uber Technologies (UBER), Smurfit Kappa (SKG) 

Thursday  

EU economic forecasts and weekly jobless claims data from the US will be the main events. Jobless data will be more important again following the Fed’s cautiously optimistic outlook last week, plus the surge in job openings which underline the structural tightness in the labour market. Meanwhile earnings from PepsiCo and PayPal are due, whilst it’s a big day for FTSE 100 earnings with finals from AstraZeneca (AZN) and Unilever (ULVR). 

Earnings:  AbbVie (ABBV), PepsiCo (PEP), Philip Moris International (PM), PayPal Holdings (PYPL), AstraZeneca (AZN), Unilever (ULVR) 

Friday 

A big data for economic releases starts with the RBA monetary policy statement following this week’s earlier rate decision. Chinese inflation figures are the highlight of the Asian session ahead of the UK’s latest GDP print and industrial production numbers. Later, Canada releases employment figures and the University of Michigan reports on the latest consumer sentiment and inflation expectations.