Look ahead 30/11/23: China PMI; US Core PCE; German retail sales; OPEC+; Dell

Ahead of Fed chair Jerome Powells speech, investors get a raft of data including the latest US core PCE price index and China manufacturing and services print. Oil could be volatile in the run up to the OPEC+ meeting.

USD/JPY cross is key, alongside new data

Lets look at the end of 30th, November starting in Japan, where we have both retail sales figures and also industrial output. What will be key is what happens with the dollar versus the yen.

Upon observing this cross, we have witnessed a recovery of the dollar against the yen, reversing its decline from recent low levels near 1.4668 to approximately 1.4782.

It then came back down again, sparked by comments from a Bank of Japan (BoJ) board member, BoJ's adoptee, who is considered among the board members with a dovish stance, said it was still premature to debate an exit from negative interest rates.

But don't forget, every cross, that's why it's called a cross, does have two sides to the story. And also, the US dollar has been weakened recently due to these expectations that we could see an interest rate cut as soon as March.

China's manufacturing and services PMI due

Additionally, there are figures available from China regarding the manufacturing and services purchasing managers' index (PMI), which holds considerable significance during this relatively calm week. It's worth noting that we are still awaiting remarks from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell later in the week., so this might be an impetus for the markets to get going, especially if we get a better-than-expected number.

From Germany, watch out for retail sales. That will be key in terms of an indication as to what consumption is doing over there. It has been quite weak recently. Unemployment rate there has been quite low, it has to be said.

The euro, briefly crossing 1.10 for the first time since August on Tuesday, this is against the dollar, but then paired gains and is now trading at around 10.987, so quite a change there. Some data from Germany show that price growth slowed to 2.3% year-on-year in November, from 3% in October.