Macroeconomic Outlook for Next Week: Fed Minutes to Focus Amid Low Liquidity

PANews, December 27th - Despite the Christmas holidays in overseas markets, gold, silver, and platinum prices all surged to record highs, continuing the historic year-end rally in precious metals. Looking ahead to next week, with New Year's Day approaching and no major macroeconomic data releases expected, global financial markets will remain in a state of extremely low liquidity, with trading volumes anticipated to be significantly lower than normal. The real start to 2026's rally may not arrive until the second week of January. Here are the key points the market will focus on in the coming week:

The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its monetary policy meeting at 3:00 AM on Tuesday.

At 21:30 on Wednesday, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending December 27 will be released.

The final reading of the US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI for December will be released at 22:45 on Friday.

With Christmas and New Year's Day approaching, no Federal Reserve officials will speak next week, as will other major central banks. The most anticipated event will be the release of the Fed's December meeting minutes. These minutes will be closely watched by investors hoping to glean any clues about the timing of the Fed's next rate cut and the extent of inflation concerns among policymakers who voted to keep rates unchanged. Choosing someone who can reach a consensus within the deeply divided Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is crucial. However, regardless of who Trump chooses, the new Fed chair will almost certainly be more dovish than Powell, thus the announcement may pose less risk to the market.