Can anything turn the dollar’s dire situation around this week?

With a hella busy week for the US will anything be able to turnaround the dollar’s dire 2018 performance?

UK
The UK definitely takes a backseat to the US this week – though given how much the pound has benefited from the dollar’s weakness, what goes on across the Atlantic will likely impact how the currency, and therefore the FTSE, fares. Anyway, in terms of UK data, Tuesday sees the net lending to individuals reading, while the manufacturing and construction PMIs arrive on Thursday and Friday.

There’s a bit more going on with the UK earnings calendar. PZ Cussons and Domino’s Pizza Group (see below) report on Tuesday, while Wizz Air Holdings is on Wednesday. Things ramp up somewhat on Thursday, with Unilever, AG Barr and Royal Dutch Shell, before Friday ends with AstraZeneca and BT Group.

US
It tells you a lot about how busy the US week is that Friday’s non-farm jobs report is the third or fourth most important thing going on. Ahead of that jobs data is Trump’s State of the Union address late on Tuesday evening, and Wednesday’s Federal Reserve rate vote and subsequent statement, one that might give investors a clearer idea about what the central bank will do in 2018.

Arguably the week’s earnings calendar is also more interesting than the jobs report. Tuesday sees McDonald’s and Pfizer, with Facebook and Boeing on Wednesday and, in a battle of the mega-corps, Alphabet, Amazon.com and Apple on Thursday.

As for the rest of the week’s data, the core PCE price index on Monday, the CB consumer confidence reading on Tuesday, the ADP non-farm number on Wednesday, the Markit and ISM manufacturing PMIs on Thursday, and the factory orders and revised UoM consumer sentiment on Friday.

Eurozone
In contrast to the UK and US the Eurozone is pretty boring this week. The region-wide inflation reading arrives on Wednesday, while the manufacturing PMIs are on Thursday and the Eurozone PPI number on Friday.

Stock of the week: Domino’s Pizza Group PLC – Q4 Trading Update
For a while there 2017 was looking pretty damn dire for Domino’s, with the company spending the summer lurking around 2 year lows.

Yet things began to pick up quite dramatically on 20th September, as Domino’s announced a £15 million share buyback plan. The food retailer received another boost in the form of October’s Q3 statement, which including a 20.8% surge in reported group system sales to £286.4 million. The like-for-like figures were arguably even more impressive: in the UK they jumped 8.1% and in Republic of Ireland they rose 13.1%, up on the 6.2% and 7.6% posted for the same period the year previous.

If the company is to continue to climb back towards the £3.90 levels seen in early 2017, then investors are going to want to see Domino’s post similar levels of like-for-like growth across the fourth quarter as they managed in Q3. An update on the integration of Hallo Pizzas in Germany will also be welcome.

• UK 100
• Wall Street
• Cable
• Gold

Open (Monday)

7738.8

Close (Thursday)

7635.9

Change

-1.35%

High

7745.8

Low

7607.6

Open (Monday)

26004.0

Close (Thursday)

26413.4

Change

+1.57%

High

26454.6

Low

25969.6

Open (Monday)

1.38879

Close (Thursday)

1.41484

Change

+1.88%

High

1.43454

Low

1.38557

Open (Monday)

1334.2

Close (Thursday)

1345.7

Change

+0.86%

High

1365.2

Low

1327.6