Look ahead 15/11/23: China industrial production; UK inflation; US retail sales; Target; Cisco

(Video Transcript)

China’s housing market stabilising

Hello, I'm Angeline Ong, and welcome to your look ahead to Wednesday 15 November 2023. First up, we have industrial production figures out of China, along with retail sales and also some data out of the housing market there.

There were some cracks appearing in the Chinese housing market of late, but it seems to stabilise now. What will be key will be consumption. The single day did show quite a hike up in online sales, which shows that the uptake, at least on the online side, is still strong.

But what will be key is if retail sales show that, across the board, consumption was growing over in China. The US consumer price index (CPI) figure, which was a key reading also, meant quite a bit of volatility for forex crosses in the last few minutes.

UK delivers CPI, PPI, RPI reports

In the UK, however, the pound will be in focus. We've got the CPI, the UK's turn to report on how inflation, stubbornly high inflation, is doing. We've got the producer price index (PPI) as well and the retail price index (RPI).

Now, the CPI in the UK is expected to show that inflation slowed to an annual rate of 4.8% in October. However, that is still very high, even though it's the lowest level for two years, down from September's 6.7% if we indeed get that figure.

The Bank of England (BoE), as a result, has raised interest rates by a record 5.15% points in 22 months. And during that time, headline inflation peaked at around 11% last October.

It has gradually been softening as rises in energy and food costs have blipped or subsided, as it were, because don't forget when you compare it with the same period that was affected by inflation the year before, then you're less likely to see a rise. Basically, that high-price landscape gets baked in.

Sterling unruffled by Sunak’s reshuffle

The pound also, just showing you this cross, showed little reaction to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's reshuffle of his cabinet, which surprisingly to many in the media and also in the political scene saw the return of former Premier David Cameron to the role of foreign minister and the sacking of Interior Minister Suella Braverman.

In the US, we have PPI figures. There's also retail sales to contend with after earnings out of Home Depot. We're counting down to Walmart, Gap and TJX, just some of the big retail names that are due to report this week. We've also got the Empire State Manufacturing Index and EIA crude oil inventories as well.

Cisco’s core revenues rise 7.2%

In the US, a big one to look out for, as I mentioned earlier, retail, we've got Target out with third-quarter numbers. But, also, Cisco is one to watch that is not from the retail space. Cisco seen reporting a 7.2% rise in core revenues. The mean analyst estimate, this is according to LSEG, for Cisco Systems is for earnings of $1.03 a share.

And that's it for now. For more market-moving news, I'll be back on beat the street at 1.30pm London time to give you a heads-up to the trading day. And IG's Jeremy Naylor will be on at 7.30am on early morning call to do the same for the European market open. Until then, you can find me on Twitter @AngelineOng and at IG.com. This is IGTV. Thanks for watching.