MARKET UPDATE: Q4 earnings and Chinese data

 On balance the overall tone since the start of the year has been just about positive, with firmer economic data, most notably in China outweighing sovereign debt concerns in Greece and elsewhere
 With the markets gyrating between a “Risk on” and “Risk off” tone from the turn of the year, “Risk off” may be the tone at the start of this week, as US equities ended the week on a negative note ahead of the Martin Luther King holidays
 Bank earnings will be a key focus, with Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, BoA, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs set to report this week
 Given the growing influence of Chinese data on markets the monthly data pack from China will capture more attention than usual on Thursday
 Chinese GDP data is likely to reveal an acceleration in growth in Q4 YoY to above 10%
 In the Eurozone the main event is the German ZEW survey tomorrow, which is likely to show further signs of flagging, due to Greek concerns
 UK data kicked off on a positive note this week, with house prices rising 0.4% MoM in January and 4.1% YoY according to UK property website Rightmove, the biggest annual gain in over a year
 The data as well as expectations that Kraft will raise its bid for Cadbury will likely help GBP in addition to other GBP positive M&A news

These are the salient points kindly contributed by Mitul Kotecha, MD & Head of Global Currency Strategy at Calyon. To view the full discussion, please click here to visit the original post on his website The Econometer