Welcome to the first look at the week ahead for 2020.
The Singapore blue-chips earnings season doesn’t start until next week when Singapore Press Holdings (SGX: T39) will post first-quarter numbers on 13 January.
Before then, there are economic numbers aplenty to keep investors on their toes.
In the US, non-farm payroll will be closely watched. They are expected to show that fewer jobs were created in December than in the previous month.
Experts have pencilled in a payroll number of 165,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate could have edged up to 3.6%.
China could say that the rate of inflation increased from 4.5% in November to 4.7% in December. If so, then it would be the fastest pace of rising prices for almost eight years. In November, it was the near doubling of pork prices that drove up consumer prices.
The Eurozone will post retail sales for November that could show a 1.5% increase over the same month in the previous year. Meanwhile, inflation in the European economic bloc could have inched up to 1.2% in December compared to 1% in the prior month.
India will also release inflation numbers. They could show that at 5.5%, the rate of price rises in December remains above the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4%. In November, the inflation rate of 5.54% was driven by higher food prices.
The UK economy could have grown at an annualised rate of 0.6% in November. That would be slower than the 0.7% year-on-year increase in October, which followed a 0.9% increase in September.
And finally, Singapore retail sales could have rebounded from a 2.2% decline in October to register a 2.5% increase in November. On a year-on-year basis, they could still be down 1.5%, though.
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Disclosure: David Kuo does not own shares in any companies mentioned.
