After last week's central bank fireworks, the most exciting event of the otherwise quiet and holiday-shortened week will happen once markets are actually closed for the month and Q1 is done and dusted in performance terms: as DB's Jim Reid reminds us, the monthly US personal income and spending report, which contains the crucial core PCE, is released on Good Friday when bond and equity markets are closed. The flash CPIs in Italy and France also come out on Friday, with the Spanish print due on Wednesday. Staying on the inflation theme, Tokyo CPI is out on Thursday, with the summary of opinions from last week's BoJ meeting on Wednesday. This will garner some attention given the once-in-a-generation shift in policy. Australian CPI is out on Wednesday.
Staying with central banks, there are lots of Fed speakers this week that can add some color to last week's generally dovish FOMC. They are listed in the day-by-day week ahead at the end.
In terms of the key US data, today sees new home sales, tomorrow sees durable goods and consumer confidence, Wednesday the final consumer sentiment reading and pending home sales, while Thursday sees the final release of Q4 GDP, trade data, the Chicago PMI and, of course, initial jobless claims.
In terms of that core PCE print on Good Friday, DB economists expect +0.27% vs. 0.42% last month. In Powell's press conference, he remarked that the month-over-month print for core PCE could be "well below 30bps" at the end of the month. Taking him at his word does offer downside risk to the economists' forecast who believe upward revisions to the January healthcare services prices could square these two numbers.
In Europe, DB's European economists' inflation chartbook covers recent trends and their forecasts here. For March readings, they expect the headline Eurozone index to come in at 2.5% (vs 2.6% in February) and core at 3.1% (3.1%). On a country level, their projections include 2.4% for Germany (2.8% next week), 2.5% for France (3.2% Friday), 1.3% in Italy (0.8% Friday) and 3.5% in Spain (3.0% Wednesday).
Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day calendar of events
Monday March 25
Tuesday March 26
Wednesday March 27
Thursday March 28
Friday March 29
Finally, looking at just the US, Goldman writes that the key economic data releases this week are the durable goods report on Tuesday and the core PCE inflation report on Friday. There are several speaking engagements from Fed officials this week, including an event with Governor Waller at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday and a discussion with Chair Powell hosted by the San Francisco Fed on Friday.
Monday, March 25
Tuesday, March 26
Wednesday, March 27
Thursday, March 28
Friday, March 29
Soruce: DB, Goldman, BofA