Markets Await Central Bank Meetings, PMIs

By Larry Greenberg, contributor to TheLFB-Forex.com

NEW YORK (TheLFB-Forex.com) -- The global economic news docket for the coming week includes a slew of central bank meetings, the U.S. monthly employment report and purchasing manager indices from a host of countries.

The U.S. turned its clocks back one hour to standard time this weekend. Some markets -- but no major ones -- will be closed Monday for All Souls' Day, and Japan's market will be closed Tuesday for National Culture Day.

Central bank meetings will be held in the United States, the eurozone, Britain, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Romania, Peru, the Czech Republic, Australia and Iceland. Australia and Iceland are the only significant candidates for a rate change. Australia is expected to implement a second rate hike, while another cut in Iceland is quite possible.

The Bank of England will keep its 0.5% rate target but may announce plans to buy additional gilts, lest that program stop. The Bank of Japan and Swedish Riksbank will publish minutes from previous policy meetings, and the Reserve Bank of Australia will release a quarterly statement on monetary policy.

Finance Ministers from the Group of 20 plan to meet Thursday.

In terms of economic data, the most important releases will be the U.S. employment report (on Friday), British industrial production, retail sales for the eurozone and PMIs from numerous regions.

Preliminary PMI readings for the eurozone, Germany and France have already been published and will be revised. Other countries that have manufacturing PMIs due next week include the U.S., Taiwan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Australia, Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, China, Ireland, Poland, Turkey, India, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and Britain. Japan has already released its manufacturing index.