A review of the week past and the week ahead 4th of January

What mattered last week:

• In a holiday-shortened week, the S&P500 climbed 1.45% to fresh all-time highs.
• The Brexit deal between the EU and the UK was signed off on.
• President Donald Trump signed off on another round of fiscal stimulus.
• Despite rising COVID19 cases in the UK the US.
• Volatility, as measured by the VIX index closed slightly higher at 22.8.
• U.S. 10-year yields closed flat near 0.92%.
• Gold rallied 1% to close near $1898.00.
• Crude oil rose 0.60% to close $48.52/bbl.
• The ASX200 fell 1.17% to 6587.1 as new COVID19 cases rose in both Sydney and Melbourne.  
• In FX, the AUDUSD rose 1.33% to close near .7690, on the back of broad-based USD weakness.

For the week ahead, the key events are:

Australia: Balance of trade, building approvals (Thursday).

New Zealand: Global dairy trade auction (Tuesday).

China: Caixin manufacturing PMI (Monday), Caixin services, and composite PMI (Wednesday), foreign exchange reserves (Thursday).

Japan: Consumer confidence (Wednesday), leading economic index (Friday).

U.S: ISM manufacturing PMI (Tuesday), factory orders (Wednesday), FOMC meeting minutes, and ISM non-manufacturing PMI ((Thursday), non-farm payrolls (Friday).

• Non-farm payrolls (Friday): Non-Farm payrolls are expected to rise by 100k in December and the unemployment rate to rise slightly from 6.7% to 6.8%.

NB: Georgia Senate elections will be held on the 6^th of January (Sydney time) and the Electoral Congress votes to confirm the US election result on the 7^th of January (Sydney time).   

Canada: Markit manufacturing PMI (Tuesday), balance of trade, and Ivey PMI (Thursday), employment (Friday).

Euro Area: German retail sales and employment (Tuesday),  German inflation and EA inflation and retail sales (Thursday),  German industrial production and EA employment (Friday).

UK: Halifax housing prices (Friday).