Can you afford to be more optimistic about the future? The next seven days will start more positively for global geopolitics with the visits of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to South Korea and Japan.
He will travel from Seoul to Tokyo on Monday to strengthen ties with the Atlantic Security Alliance and key partners in Asia. The meeting after Japan and South Korea joined the NATO summit for the first time in Europe shows allied support for those countries facing security challenges posed by China and North Korea.
A war in Ukraine is high on the agenda, and Tokyo and Seoul are likely to confirm the release of additional non-lethal equipment for Kyiv.
A schoolgirl stands next to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad © Amit Dave/Reuters
On the contrary, this week is also a reminder of the ongoing and very real challenges posed by populism and nationalists. India marks Martyrs’ Day on Monday, which marks the 75th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s murder. As writer Ramachandra Guha points out in his FT Weekend essay, the cult of anti-colonial revolutionaries has waned as Hindu nationalism surges.
In the United States, Donald Trump faces trial on Monday for failing to comply with a subpoena from a House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Former President Trump will be big again. .
In the UK, drivers and driving instructors from the Department of Vehicle Standards will go on strike for another week starting Monday. On Wednesday, school teachers, train drivers and university lecturers stopped using tools, and the TUC trade union organization exercised its right to strike in opposition to a disputed government bill for essential services. Host a day to protect.
economic data
The interest rate setting schedules of the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England monetary policy committees have been adjusted again.
The ECB has indicated that the Fed will end its 0.75ppt pace of rate hikes in December, and is expected to continue its ultra-large rate hikes while the Fed downshifts.
The Bank of England is expected to deliver a 0.5 percentage point gain on a stubborn continuation of high inflation, strong wage growth and an unexpected resilience in the UK economy.
enterprise
Tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta and Spotify report quarterly earnings © Mike Segar/Reuters
We’re in the middle of earnings season, and this week marks Big Tech’s peak with quarterly numbers from Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta, and Spotify. It was a period of calm for the sector.
It’s notable given that Apple is expected to break its 14th straight quarter of growth in a favorable December quarter due to a shortage of high-end iPhones. The outbreak of Covid-19 at his Zhengzhou factory (known locally as his iPhone city) in November has left him short of 10 million devices from 5 million.
At around $1,000 per pop, this works out for the $10 billion problem, which isn’t good news for Apple given its cell phone war with Google. Revenue for this quarter of 2021 was just below $124 billion. Forecasts for 2022 are slightly lower, but the impact on net income could be even greater.
Read the full calendar for the week ahead here.