Weekly Digest – INVESTEC

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There is plenty going on from a political front this week.  The Spanish bond market and equity markets underperformed on Friday and will likely remain volatile this week. We may well hear who the next US Federal Reserve Chairman is going to be, with Jerome (Jay) Powell seen as the front runner and slightly less hawkish than some of the alternative. Legislation in the US on Wednesday, if approved, may bring tax reforms a step closer.

On the economic front, the Monetary Policy Committee meeting concludes on Thursday and may well bring us the first increase in interest rates seen in the UK for more than a decade, the Fed rate meeting concludes on Wednesday but no change in rates is expected. From the US economic perspective all eyes will be on the non-farm employment payroll data on Friday, the market expecting a sharp bounce back from the hurricane-affected September reading (-33,000) to +310,000 expected.

The corporate results season continues to run at full throttle, following the technology’s sector’s excellent results last week from the likes of Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft.  This week sees Tesla, Facebook, Apple, Standard Chartered, HSBC (today – fine), BP, Royal Dutch Shell, EOG Resources, Next, Novo Nordisk and Smith & Nephew, amongst many others reporting results.