Look Ahead 10/8/23: US inflation; Antofagasta, Henkel, Siemens earnings; Disney reaction

(Video Transcript)

USD in spotlight with inflation figures

Hello, welcome to IGTV. I'm Angeline Ong, and this is your Look Ahead to 10 August 2023. The big set piece for the week is the US inflation figure. This is the consumer price index for the month of July, and also we're looking out for initial jobless changes.

Taking a look at the USD basket for you, because this was trading in that band between 10,400 and 11,400. As you can see there, it's come down now and hitting lower lows.

However, after that July low of 9932, we are seeing this index traversing higher there. Part of the reason is because there's now this expectation in the market that perhaps the US economy, or rather, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) has managed to achieve somewhat that so-called soft landing.

Are we due for a correction?

Of course, those are hopes and it's not confirmed yet. Some market watchers actually think that we're still due a correction. Wall Street's main indices, if we look at today's session, are open marginally higher after a risk-off session triggered by a moving downgrade of some banks, and now the inflation figure is what everyone's counting down to.

We also have those Chinese figures early in the session that were very weak and prompted some risk-off as well.

Now, the earnings dailies get heavier as it normally does here in Europe on a Thursday. We've got Persimmon, Entain, Antifagasta, Henkel and HelloFresh as well out with earnings, along with Zurich Insurance as well. And it doesn't end there.

We've also got figures out of Germany from Pittenkrupp, Munich Re, Allianz and also Siemens out with a third quarter number.

Siemens fraud probe ongoing

Siemens is quite an interesting one because it's not just the earnings that we are watching out for. We're also checking out any comments or any insight into what's happening in Austria. Siemens is cooperating with authorities in Austria on a probe into allegations of a possible corruption scandal related to hospital building contracts.

Not much detail has come out of that just yet, but the company said Siemens has provided information to the public prosecutor's office that was uncovered in the course of a compliance investigation that is still ongoing. So, we're going to keep a close eye on that.

And just before I go, don't forget, we'll also have Walt Disney's results after the bell on Wednesday, so we'll keep an eye on that and the reaction for you. This is IGTV.