Fed news update

• USD New Home Sales: 544K
• USD Crude Oil Inventories: 8.4M
• USD FOMC Statement
• USD Federal Funds Rate: <0.50%
• GBP MPC Member Shafik Speaks
• NZD Official Cash Rate: 2.50%
• RBNZ Rate Statement
• NZD Trade Balance: -53M

The Federal Reserve dominated market movement yesterday as they made their first interest rate decision and monetary policy statement of the year. However, there were no economic projections and no press conference this time as these are expected at the Fed’s next meeting in March.

On other news, one of the world’s largest companies Apple saw its first fall in revenue since 2003 this week. Apple’s stock has fallen 25% over the last year after the bear market gained traction in the middle of 2015. The main concerns are as a result of a slowdown in emerging markets, in particular China; the companies second biggest market after the US. The news suggests that Consumer Confidence is softening globally and risk appetite remains strong, leaving the Greenback to potentially face some resistance in the coming months.

• EUR German Prelim CPI m/m
  
• EUR Spanish Unemployment Rate
• GBP Prelim GDP q/q
• USD Core Durable Goods Orders m/m
• USD Unemployment Claims
• USD Durable Goods Orders m/m
• USD Pending Home Sales m/m
• GBP GfK Consumer Confidence

The first reading for Q4 GDP from the UK is posted in the morning, with expectations of a slight uptick to 0.5% from 0.4%, given the recent loss of momentum in growth. Sterling has been on the back foot since the beginning of the year, it will be interesting to see how this affects the performance of the currency. Following this, the US Core Durable Goods monthly order data is released just after lunch from the US.