Coming Week: Ready, Set, Listen

However, Japanese policymakers may receive private pressure at the G7 meeting, which could result in a more hawkish statement from the Bank of Japan, or an actual rate hike, at its next policy meeting on Feb. 19-20. While that's a story for the following week, Thursday's report on Japan's fourth-quarter GDP could sway expectations for forthcoming BOJ policy.

Why does this matter to U.S. investors? One, it's a global financial marketplace. Two, a great deal of the so-called liquidity surge buoying financial markets worldwide has been emanating out of Japan; rock-bottom borrowing costs are facilitating the so-called carry trade, the borrowing of yen to reinvest in higher-yield assets, as discussed in Friday's Real Story podcast.

Three, the wild gyrations in financial markets last spring began not, as many purport, with the Fed's failure to pause at it May 10 meeting. Rather, it was the Bank of Japan's efforts to remove liquidity and prepare for the end of the zero rate policy in the days prior to that Fed meeting that really started the ball rolling downhill for asset prices.

On the flipside, with G7 members apparently battling to have the weaker currency, gold prices moved to multimonth highs above $670 per ounce Friday. Beggar thy neighbor, indeed.

Of Stocks and Sectors

If Mickey Levy is right, Ben Bernanke will accentuate the positives about housing in his testimony. Ahead of that auspicious event, the market will look to Tuesday's earnings report from K.B. Homes(KBH Quote) for more insight on the state of the sector, while Friday brings housing starts data.