Smart look at the week ahead: US slowdown

Welcome to the first look at the week ahead for 2020.

The Singapore blue-chips earnings season doesn't start until next week when Singapore Press Holdings will post first-quarter numbers on 13 Jan.

Before then, there are economic numbers aplenty to keep investors on their toes.

In the US, non-farm payroll will be closely watched. They are expected to show that fewer jobs were created in December than in the previous month.

Experts have pencilled in a payroll number of 165,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate could have edged up to 3.6 per cent.

China could say that the rate of inflation increased from 4.5 per cent in November to 4.7 per cent in Dec. If so, then it would be the fastest pace of rising prices for almost eight years. In Nov, it was the near doubling of pork prices that drove up consumer prices.

The Eurozone will post retail sales for Nov that could show a 1.5 per cent increase over the same month in the previous year. Meanwhile, inflation in the European economic bloc could have inched up to 1.2 per cent in Dec compared to 1 per cent in the prior month.

India will also release inflation numbers. They could show that at 5.5 per cent, the rate of price rises in Dec remains above the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4 per cent. In Nov, the inflation rate of 5.54 per cent was driven by higher food prices.

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The UK economy could have grown at an annualised rate of 0.6 per cent in Nov. That would be slower than the 0.7 per cent year-on-year increase in Oct, which followed a 0.9 per cent increase in Sept.

And finally, Singapore retail sales could have rebounded from a 2.2 per cent decline in Oct to register a 2.5 per cent increase in Nov. On a year-on-year basis, they could still be down 1.5 per cent, though.

This article was first published on The Smart Investor.