Weekly outlook for June 20-24

The Greek debt will continue to be among the main news items that will affect traders and investors and consequently the financial markets including the Euros to US dollar exchange rates, indexes and major commodities prices. Here is an economic news calendar for the week of June 20th to 24th that highlights the main news items and reports related to Europe, U.S., Canada and Australia.

(all times GMT):

  1. Sunday 19th of June 10:00 – ECB conference Trichet speaks: after the recent press conference of ECB, in which the rate remained unchanged,  Jean Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank will give a speech in London; he will probably refer to ECB’s monetary policy, the EURO and perhaps even refer to the Greek debt crisis;
  2. Monday 20th of June all day – European council summit: the main topic of this summit will the Greek debt and what will be the future steps in regards to the repackaging of Greece’s bonds – this summit could stir up the financial markets and affect the major currencies;
  3. Tuesday 21st of June 2:30 – Monetary Policy meeting Australia’s Bank: The minutes of the monetary policy meeting of the reserve bank of Australia, presents the main domestic and international factors that affected the board’s decisions on the Bank’s basic interest rate that remained unchanged at 4.75% (see here last rate decision);
  4. Tuesday 21st of June 13:30 – Core retails sales Canada (April 2011): This report shows the main changes that occurred in the retails sales in Canada during the month of April 2011. This report might affect the USD/CAD exchange rate. This report could indicate the changes in sales of major commodities including gasoline. In the previous report pertaining March 2011, retails sales remained nearly unchanged at $37.3 billion; the largest increase among sub sectors was in the gasoline sales that rose by 1.4% during April 2011 (see here the full report);
  5. Tuesday 21st of June 15:00 – U.S. existing home sales: This report shows the major changes in existing home sales in the U.S. for May 2011; in the  recent report related to April there was a drop in number of homes sold despite the rise during the previous months (see here the recent report);
  6. Wednesday 22nd of June 15:30 – EIA report about Crude oil inventories: The EIA (Energy Information Administration) will publish a weekly report on the U.S Petroleum prices and oil stocks; in the last report, U.S. Petroleum and oil stocks moderately declined for the first time since April 15th; during last week the stocks fell 622 thousand barrels, or by 0.03% (see here the recent crude oil market review);
  7. Wednesday 22nd of June 17:30 – Decision on Federal Reverse’s Interest Rate: The current Fed’s basic interest rate is still at 0 to 0.25 percent, as it was in the past two years. The recent stimulus plan, in which the Fed purchased $600 billion worth of long term Treasury securities, will end by the end of the month. In the upcoming FOMC meeting the committee will decide the interest rate level, and whether to take any further monetary steps to stimulate the US economy; if there will be any news in this meeting it could affect the financial markets (see here previous meeting minutes);
  8. Thursday 23rd of June 13:30 – Department of Labor report – U.S. unemployment claims: For the week ending on June 11th, initial claims decreased by 16,000, as it reached 414,000 claims; the insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9% for the week ending on June 4th; and the number of insured unemployment was 3.675 million, a decrease of 21,000 compared with the previous week’s. (see here my recent review on the US Labor market );
  9. Thursday 23rd of June 15:00 – U.S. new home sales: This report will also help figure out the changes in the real estate market during May 2011 as it will present the new home sales in the U.S.; in the recent report (April 2011), the sales of new homes reached 323,000; this is an increase of nearly 7.3% compared with the number of new homes sold in March 2011, but its 23.1% below the level of April 2010; this report may indicate the progress of the US economy and its recovery from recent recession. (see here the recent report);
  10. Thursday 23rd of June 15:30 – EIA report about Natural gas storage: the natural gas started to cool down; the EIA will publish its U.S. natural gas stocks, production and consumption report for the week ending on June 17th. In the recent report, natural gas storage rose last week by 3.2% or 69 Bcf; the natural gas storage inclined to 2.256 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states (see here my recent natural gas storage review);
  11. Friday 24th of June 13:30 – US Department of Commerce – Report on Durable Goods: This monthly report will show the changes in orders of durable goods in the U.S. in the manufacturing sector during May. This report indirectly shows the changes in U.S. demand for goods including major commodities such as crude oil. During April 2011, there was decrease in manufactured durable goods by $7.1 billion or 3.6% to $189.9 billion; Non-defense new orders for capital goods decreased by $5.3 billion or 7.3% to $67.6 billion (for the full report);
  12. Friday 24th of June 13:30 – US GDP 1Q 2011 report: This will be the last estimate of the first quarter 2011 real GDP of US. In the preliminary estimates the 1Q2011 GDP growth rate was 1.8%, compared with 3.1% at 4Q10. This shows a decline in the growth rate of the US’s GDP and a slow down in the economic activity in the US compared with the previous quarters’ (for the first estimate of 1Q GDP).

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