Battle lines were drawn between President Jacob Zuma’s allies and his enemies as a motion of no confidence was put forward at the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting over the weekend – the second motion to recall the president in six months.
While a lot of the data due this week will only show the initial impact of the NEC meeting’s outcome, investors need to bear in mind that the long-awaited Moody’s “negative watch” review could be released any day now, with further downgrades expected.
On Tuesday investors will keep a close eye on the Business Confidence Index for the second quarter of 2017, which has remained below the watershed level that indicates the difference between growth and expansion – 50 – since the fourth quarter of 2014. Production data is due on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the world, US Non-Farm Payrolls are due on Thursday and Friday. As usual figures from the ADP Research Institute are released before the public government data.
Other important economic announcements this week:
Monday
• EU European Central Bank President Mario Draghi Speaks
Tuesday
• EU EA Business Confidence & German Inflation Rate
• US Consumer Confidence
Wednesday
• SA Foreign Exchange Reserves
• UK Consumer Confidence
• China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index
• EU Unemployment Rate
• US Pending Home Sales
Thursday
• China Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index
• UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index
• US ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index
Friday
• UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index
• US Balance of Trade
Giacomo Bonavera is head of foreign exchange trading at Capilis Asset Managers. Click here to visit the firm’s website.