Banks’ profits announcements continue

The bumper earnings week continues, with a handful of large banks releasing their profits data today, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. If the positive news from UK based payments company Wise, who reported a 29% rise in profits, is anything to go by, the financial sector could be in for another big week of climbing stock values.

China’s weak economy causes a dip in commodities

On the back of disappointing economic news from China yesterday, commodities took a tumble. Having previously been bolstered by a weakened dollar, the values of copper, gold aluminium and zinc all fell on hearing the news.  Whilst China is expected to announce some stimulus measures to combat their declining economy, it is widely believed that commodities already have these measures priced in, so it’s unlikely that it will do much to pick up their lacklustre values. 

NZ & Canada take an inflation rain check 

Both New Zealand and Canada are due to report their CPI, or inflation figures, later today. New Zealand currently has one of the highest interest rates in developed economies, so some respite from climbing inflation is much needed. Canada has also experienced the fastest series of interest rate raises in its history, so the appetite for falling inflation is equally high. Many anticipate that in Canada inflation will be around 3.1%, much closer to the desired 2% and closer in line with what the USA achieved last week. Nonetheless, the two CPI releases will likely have an impact on confidence in markets futures.

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Sources: IG, Nasdaq, Financial Times, Reuters, FX Live, AJ Bell