A review of the week past and the week ahead

What mattered last week:

The S&P500 closed 1.30% higher on good earnings data, progress on vaccine rollouts, and rising prospects that a larger than previously anticipated US stimulus package will be passed.
Supported also by dovish comments from Fed Chair Powell reiterating that the goal remains full employment and that the US is a long way from that.
Volatility, as measured by the VIX index closed lower at 20.0.
U.S. 10-year yields rose 5bp to close near 1.215%.
Gold closed slightly higher near $1824.00.
Crude oil closed over 2% higher, near $59.47/bbl.
The ASX200 fell 0.50% to close at 6806.7, as news of a new lockdown in Victoria weighed on sentiment.
The AUD/USD rallied over 1% to close near .7760, supported by stronger risk sentiment and commodity prices.

For the week ahead, the key events are:

Australia: HIA new home sales (Monday), RBA meeting minutes (Tuesday), labour Force (Thursday), Markit flash PMI, and retail sales (Friday).

Labour Force (Thursday): The market is looking for a 30k rise in employment in January with the unemployment rate edging down to 6.5%.

Earnings season continues with reports from companies including BHP, TWE GPT, and QBE.

New Zealand: Global dairy trade auction (Tuesday).

China: Chinese New Year holiday.

Japan: Q4 GDP (Monday), CPI (Friday),

Q4 GDP (Monday): The market is looking for a 2.3% q/q rise.

Singapore: Balance of trade (Wednesday).

Korea: PPI (Friday).

U.S: Retail sales and industrial production (Wednesday), FOMC meeting minutes, housing starts, building permits, jobless claims (Thursday), Markit Flash PMIs, and existing home loans (Friday).

Retail sales (Wednesday): Headline retail sales are expected to rebound by 0.9% helped by stronger gasoline station receipts coming from higher pump prices.

Euro Area: EA balance of trade, industrial production (Monday), EA employment (Tuesday), EA consumer confidence and Markit flash PMI and German Flash PMI (Friday).

UK: CPI (Wednesday), retail sales, and Markit flash PMI’s (Friday).