Key market-moving items next week: China releases July retail sales, industrial
output and total electricity consumption (Monday) — the closest thing to a July
economic 'report card' for asset and policy watchers. The PBOC will conduct
overnight reverse repos Aug 17–19, and China publishes Swift RMB global payments
share and the 1-year LPR on Thursday. The Fed releases meeting minutes on
Thursday. US energy inventories (API and EIA crude) are due Wednesday; NYMEX
September crude contract rolls on Friday. US labor and activity data include ADP
payrolls, housing starts/permits and pending home sales (Tuesday), initial
jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed index (Thursday), and S&P Global August
manufacturing and services PMIs (Friday, flash). Europe and UK: German/euro-area
ZEW (Tue), UK and euro-area CPI (UK on Wed; euro-area final CPI Wed), and
preliminary Aug manufacturing PMIs across major European economies and UK on
Friday. Other data: Canada July CPI (Mon), Japan July core CPI (Fri), Australia
July unemployment (Thu), euro-area current account (Wed), and US leading
indicators (Thu). Corporate calendar: major China/HK earnings include Geely
(Mon); Baidu and Xiaomi (Tue); Kuaishou, ZTO, Kingsoft, HKEX and Weibo (Wed);
Ping An, China Telecom, NetEase, Alibaba, AIA, Li Ning, Pop Mart and Futu (Thu);
ZTE, Sinopec and Beike (Fri). Events and policy signals: ECB President Lagarde
speaks at a WEF panel on global economic outlook (Wed); Seoul AI Summit runs Aug
19–21 and the World Robot Conference Aug 19–23 (sector sentiment). Geopolitical
risk: market commentary flagged by Bessent warning of a possible 'unprecedented'
US economic strike on Iran this week — presented as a forecast/preview, not an
official action.
