As is typical on days that the US market is closed for a holiday, Martin Luther King Day today, trading in international markets has been fairly quiet. US index futures, which close shortly, are down 0.1%-0.3% giving back some of Friday’s 0.3%-0.7% gains. European indices are in the green today with the Dax and the FTSE both up about 0.25%.
Commodity action has been mixed today, particularly in energy trading where Natural Gas is up 4.50% and WTI Crude Oil is down 0.4%. Metals are broadly down today including losses of 1.1% for Copper and 0.25% for Gold.
While news flow appears to basically be on hold today, things pick up again tonight with China set to report GDP, retail sales and industrial production numbers. For the rest of the week, the focus of economic news is mainly on inflation and retail sales from several countries. Headliners include Canada consumer prices on Tuesday, US retail sales and a Bank of Japan meeting on Wednesday, and retail sales from the UK and Canada on Friday.
The earnings calendar is dominated this week by US regional banks with traders looking for wider confirmation of Friday’s generally positive reports from some of the biggest US banks. Companies from other sectors start to report results as well including brokerages Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley plus United Airlines on Tuesday, Alcoa on Wednesday. Netflix on Thursday and Schlumberger on Friday.