The economic data releases are starting to show coronavirus crisis impact on the economy. Last week’s Thursday’s Unemployment Claims number has reached almost 7 million. And we will likely get more bad economic data this week. Let’s take a look at the details.
The week behind
Last week’s economic data releases have been overshadowed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis developments again. And it wasn’t that surprising. However, Thursday’s weekly Unemployment Claims number hit record high again as it got close to 7 million! In the previous week, it has been the first data to show the impact of the pandemic on the U.S. economy. Last Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls number release has also been worse than expected. However, the markets will pay much more attention to the next jobs data for the month of April.
The week ahead
What about the coming week? The financial markets will likely continue to focus on virus crisis news in the near future. And we will see more evident data showing the pandemic impact on the economy. Investors will likely await Thursday’s Unemployment Claims release. Then there will be the FOMC Meeting Minutes release on Wednesday and the Consumer Price Index release on Friday. Oil traders will await Wednesday’s OPEC Meetings outcome. But don’t forget that the markets’ volatility may be dropping ahead of this week’s Good Friday holiday. Let’s take a look at the key highlights:
- On Thursday we will get the next weekly Unemployment Claims release.
- Wednesday’s FOMC Meeting Minutes and Friday’s Consumer Price Index releases will also get a lot of attention.
- Wednesday’s OPEC Meetings may be important for the oil prices. Oil traders will also wait for Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s inventories data release.
- We will also have some important data releases from Australia and Canada this week.
You will find this week’s key news releases below (EST time zone). For your convenience, we broke them down per market to which they are particularly important so that you know what to pay extra attention to if you have or plan to have positions in one of them. Moreover, we put particularly important news in bold. This kind of news is what is more likely to trigger volatile movements. The news that is not in bold usually doesn’t result in bigger intraday moves, so unless one is engaging in a particularly active form of day trading, it might be best to focus on the news that we put in bold. Of course, you are free to use the below indications as you see fit. As far as we are concerned, we are usually not engaging in any day trading during days with “bold” events on a given market. However, in the case of more medium-term trades, we usually choose to be aware of the increased intraday volatility, but not change the currently opened position.
Our Market News Report consists of two different time-related perspectives. The investors’ perspective is only suitable for long-term investments. The single economic data releases rarely cause major outlook changes. Hence, we will only see a handful of bold markings every week. On the other hand, the traders’ perspective is for traders and day-traders, because the assets’ prices are likely to react on a single piece of economic data. So, there will be a lot more bold markings on potentially market-moving news every week.
Investors’ Perspective
Gold, Silver, and Mining Stocks
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Friday, April 10
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - CPI m/m, Core CPI m/m
Tuesday, April 7
- 4:30 p.m. U.S. - API Weekly Crude Oil Stock
Wednesday, April 8
- 10:30 a.m. U.S. - Crude Oil Inventories
- Tentative – OPEC Meetings, OPEC-JMMC Meetings
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Friday, April 10
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - CPI m/m, Core CPI m/m
Stock Markets
Wednesday, April 8
- 2:00 p.m. U.S. - FOMC Meeting Minutes
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Friday, April 10
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - CPI m/m, Core CPI m/m
Wednesday, April 8
- 2:00 p.m. U.S. - FOMC Meeting Minutes
Thursday, April 9
- 7:30 a.m. Eurozone - ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Friday, April 10
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - CPI m/m, Core CPI m/m
Wednesday, April 8
- 2:00 p.m. U.S. - FOMC Meeting Minutes
- 8:30 p.m. Japan - BOJ Governor Kuroda Speech
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Thursday, April 9
- 2:00 a.m. U.K. - GDP m/m
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Monday, April 6
- 10:30 a.m. Canada - BOC Business Outlook Survey
Tuesday, April 7
- 10:00 a.m. Canada - Ivey PMI
Wednesday, April 8
- 2:00 p.m. U.S. - FOMC Meeting Minutes
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
- 8:30 a.m. Canada - Employment Change, Unemployment Rate
Tuesday, April 7
- 12:30 a.m. Australia - Cash Rate, RBA Rate Statement
Wednesday, April 8
- 9:30 p.m. Australia - RBA Financial Stability Review
Thursday, April 9
- 8:30 a.m. U.S. - Unemployment Claims
Summing up, the financial markets will likely continue to react to news about globally spreading coronavirus in the near future. The scheduled economic data releases seem less important than monetary policy updates or news about governments’ interventions recently. However, if you’re an investor and not a trader, you should pay extra attention to Tuesday's monetary policy update in Australia, Wednesday’s OPEC Meetings and Thursday’s monthly jobs report in Canada. In addition, this week’s Unemployment Claims release may show further virus impact on the U.S. jobs market.