Heavyweight News Week Ahead: Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve to Successively Announce Interest Rate Decisions, 5 out of the 7 Tech Giants to Report Earnings, Latest Employment Data from the US Department of Labor Released

BlockBeats News, April 27th. This week, all G7 member countries will hold central bank meetings, and 24% of companies in the S&P 500 index by market capitalization will release their earnings reports. This includes five of the seven tech giants. Even without considering the potential impact of the Iran conflict, this week is expected to be significant.

The Bank of Japan will announce its interest rate decision on Tuesday, followed by a press conference by Haruhiko Kuroda. This will be followed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada on Wednesday (early Thursday Beijing time). Thursday will see the interest rate decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. While all central banks are expected to keep interest rates unchanged, the key question is how each central bank's reaction function will be influenced by conflicts and associated risks of stagflation.

Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta will also report their first-quarter earnings after the U.S. market closes on Wednesday (early Thursday Beijing time), with Apple announcing its earnings on Thursday (5 a.m. Beijing time).

Economists at Deutsche Bank expect any meaningful guidance change from the Fed to be delayed until June, as this week is Powell's last meeting before stepping down. However, the communication may slightly tilt hawkish – either through nuances like "additional policy adjustments" or through Chair Powell hinting at a more balanced assessment of the risks around the dual mandate. Explicitly acknowledging the risks to price stability and employment are now more balanced could be interpreted as a slightly less dovish stance.

Aside from the meetings, Thursday's personal income and spending report, especially the latest initial jobless claims data and core PCE data, are crucial. The schedule for important information this Thursday Beijing time is as follows:

· 2:00: Federal Reserve FOMC announces interest rate decision

· 2:30: Federal Reserve Chair Powell speaks

· 4:30: Alphabet earnings conference call

· 5:30: Microsoft, Amazon, Meta earnings conference call

· 20:15: European Central Bank announces interest rate decision

· 20:30: U.S. latest job data, Q1 Advance GDP Annualized Rate