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).

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