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Do you want to stay on top of the macroeconomic events that shape your day-to-day life as a financial services marketer?
If so, here are the big macro events that the Ext. Marketing team is keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.
The Bank of Canada’s (“BoC”) rate announcement takes place on January 18. Given that the U.S. recently increased its rate to 0.75%, investors are interested to see whether the BoC will make a similar move. Also of interest will be the Monetary Policy Report Update, which could indicate the future direction of the BoC’s central interest rate. Any immediate change or hint of future changes could have an impact on various sectors of the economy. On January 19, the European Central Bank (“ECB”) will announce its interest rate decision. Europe’s economy has been struggling and is supported largely by central bank stimulus measures. The ECB has already announced the extension of its quantitative easing program through December 2017, and the expectation is that interest rates will remain unchanged. The U.S. will announce its fourth quarter advance gross domestic product (“GDP”) figure on January 27. This will give investors an early reading on the overall strength of the U.S. economy during the fourth quarter. Canada will announce its real GDP figure for November on January 31. Real GDP measures the value of economic output adjusted for inflation, giving investors an understanding of the overall strength of the Canadian economy. The U.S. unemployment rate will be announced on February 3. The U.S. labour market has been strong as the U.S. has experienced 95 straight weeks of claims below 300,000. A low unemployment rate will be a positive indicator for the U.S. economy and could reinforce the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s argument for a more aggressive stance when it comes to its interest rate policy.
