Midweek update: what’s going on in the forex markets?

Now that Wednesday is here, it’s worth having a look at what’s going on in the foreign exchange markets over the course of the rest of the week.

Today, there will be a variety of US economic data points released.

Preliminary non-farm productivity figures for Q3 of 2019 will be out at 1:30pm GMT and is expected to show a change from 2.3% to 0.9%.

Preliminary unit labour costs for the same period of time are expected to come out at 1:30pm GMT.

This is expected to show a change from 2.6% to 2.2%.

A speech from John C. Williams, who is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will occur at 2:30pm GMT.

Looking ahead to tomorrow (Thursday), the first key event looks set to be a Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers from around the Eurozone.

The next key event of the day will be the interest rate decision of the Bank of England, which will come out at 12pm GMT.

This is expected to show no change from its previously recorded position of 0.75%.

It is widely expected that the majority of members of the Monetary Policy Committee will vote in favour of the decision.

At 12:30pm, there will be a speech from Mark Carney, which is likely to touch on whatever decision is made by the committee.

Continuing jobless claims for the dates around 25^th October will come out of the US at 1:30pm GMT.

This is expected to show a change from 1,690,000 to 1,683,000.

Initial jobless claims for the dates around 1^st November will be announced at 1:30pm GMT.

This is expected to show a dip from 218,000 to 215,000.

A speech from the US Federal Reserve’s Robert Steven Kaplan, who is president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, will occur at 6:05pm GMT.

On Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy statement looks set to come out at 12:30am GMT.

This will give some indication of how the Bank perceives wider economic conditions.

At some stage over the course of the day, China will release its imports and exports data for October.

This is likely to be closely watched, especially given the precarious trading situation with the US.

No fixed time for these releases has yet been announced, although some indication of what may happen is out.

It is expected that imports will show a change from -8.5% to -8.9% year on year, while exports are likely to show a change from -3.2% to -3.9% year on year.

Japan’s preliminary leading economic index for September will be out at 5am GMT.

This is expected to show a change from 91.9 to 91.7.

Swiss unemployment rate data for October will be out at 6:45am GMT.

This is expected to show no month on month change from 2.3%, at which it was last recorded.

German trade balance information for September is expected out at 7am GMT and is due to show no change from its previous position of €18.1bn euros.