Developments in the Middle East conflict and efforts to restore the region’s energy exports will remain the key drivers of global markets in the coming week. Robust earnings from the world’s largest corporations have collided with the war’s inflationary effects, pushing both equity markets and sovereign bond yields to recent local highs.
The durability of household income and spending in the face of rising prices will be tested in the United States with the personal income and outlays report, which includes the closely watched PCE inflation measure. Inflation will also be in focus across major Eurozone economies and in Australia.
Japan faces a data-heavy week, with releases on industrial production, retail sales, consumer confidence, and the unemployment rate. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) and the Bank of Korea (BoK) will hold policy meetings to set interest rates, while Canada and Brazil are scheduled to publish their latest GDP figures.
