Fed, ECB to hike, OPEC to hold, APPL, GOOG, AMZN and FB [Video]

The new week kicked off with Chinese equities jumping into a bull market as traders returned from their Lunar New Year holiday.

The S&P500 and Nasdaq also freed themselves from the 2022 bearish trend, while global bond markets had their best January since 1990.

And if the equity rally is still on a shaky ground – due to fear that the slowing economy could hit company earnings – the future in bonds looks brighter.

In the macro front, the Federal Reserve (Fed), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) will be announcing their latest policy verdicts, between Wednesday and Thursday.

For the Fed, there is extremely little doubt that this week’s rate hike won’t be anything more than a meagre 25bp hike. The ECB is expected to hike by 50bp this month, while we don’t know by how much the BoE will be raising its rates. In one hand, the BoE should continue fighting against inflation – which remains in the double-digit zone in Britain. On the other hand, the economic outlook for Britain is so morose – with country-wide strikes adding salt and pepper to the gloomy picture that Bailey cannot throw a series of 50bp hikes in the middle like Madame Lagarde.

Elsewhere, the Indian markets are being shaken by the Adani scandal. OPEC will meet this week, and big US companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Exxon, Starbucks and Ford are due to announce earnings throughout this week!