What’s coming up in the forex markets this week?

With a new foreign exchange trading week now here, it’s time to assess what’s happening in the forex markets over the next few days

Today (Monday), there will be some central banker action.

The European Central Bank’s Philip Lane will speak at 12:30pm GMT, and this will be followed at 1pm by a speech from the same Bank’s Luis De Guindos – who serves as its vice president.

Later in the day, there will be a series of economic data releases from the US.

One of these will be the preliminary purchasing managers’ index for December from Markit, covering manufacturing which looks set to come out a 2:45pm GMT.

This is expected to show a change from 51.6 to 52.

There will also be a composite PMI release from Markit at the same time.

This is expected to show a change from 52 to 51.9 – so only slight, but negative, nonetheless.

The Bank of England will release some of its stress test results at 5pm GMT.

These will be released alongside a financial stability report, as well as the most recent meeting minutes from the Financial Policy Committee.

In New Zealand, the Q4 consumer survey from Westpac will be out at 8pm GMT.

This is set to show a change from 103.1 to 103.5.

The minutes of a meeting from the Reserve Bank of Australia will be out at 12:30am GMT on Tuesday.

This will be followed in Britain by the release of the claimant count rate for November, which is likely to give some indication as to the health of the UK labour market.

This metric, which will be out at 9:30am GMT, was last recorded at 3.4%.

Building permits data for November will be out of the US at 1:30pm GMT.

It is expected to show a change from 1,461,000 to 1,400,000 on a month on month basis – suggesting that there may be some slowdown in US construction activity on the horizon.

Industrial production figures from the US, covering November, will be out at 2:15pm GMT.

Month on month, these are expected to show a change from -0.8% to +0.8%.

A speech from Eric Rosengren, who serves as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, will occur at 5:30pm GMT.

Looking to the rest of the week, Wednesday, there will be a speech from the European Central Bank’s new president, Christine Lagarde.

This is due to occur at 8:30am GMT.

A consumer price index for November will be out of Britain at 9:30am GMT on Wednesday morning.

This is expected to show a month on month change from -0.2% to +0.2%.

In Europe, a consumer price index for November is expected at 10am GMT.

This is set to show a change from 0.1% to -0.3% on a month on month basis.

On Thursday, the first key event is expected to be the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision, which is due at 3am GMT.

This currently sits at -0.1%.