uk monthly unemployment figures germany ifo economic forecast eu industrial production oecd quarterly national accounts g20 gdp growth us federal open market committee meeting updates from ceconomy european stock futures were pointing to gains after mondays retreat while us stock futures were also higher the us dollar firmed ahead of the meeting of the us federal reserve tuesday and wednesday the yield on the 10year treasury was steady at 142 oil and gold remained in a waitandsee mode ahead of central bank meetings this week european stocks could open higher as investors await the outcome of a major decision by the federal reserve expected later this week on how aggressively to combat inflation the fed is set to release its decision on wednesday following the conclusion of a twoday policy meeting the us central bank is expected to move more quickly to wind down its bondbuying program and signal that it will raise interest rates next year to curb inflation low rates and easymoney policies from the fed have helped fuel this years extraordinary stockmarket rally removing that support could send markets tumbling some investors say we are in the midst of a transition from a euphoric economic environment funded by the federal reserve to an environment that is much more uncertain said phil blancato president and chief executive of ladenburg thalmann asset management wall street will get an inflation update on tuesday when the labor department releases its producerprice index for november which shows how inflation is impacting costs for businesses that report will be especially important with the fed meeting stocks were mostly lower in asia on early tuesday hong kongs benchmark slipped on persisting worries over property developers stocks to watch investors are likely to applaud rio tinto and turquoise hills offer to cancel 23b of debt and terminate the current underground development plan at the oyu tolgoi copper mine in mongolia morgan stanley said thats because it would remove a key hurdle in progressing the project rio tinto has a 51 interest in turquoise hill and a 34 economic interest in oyu tolgoi this stake accounts for 3 of our group attributable net present value and is expected to contribute 3 to group underlying ebitda for 2021 and 31 of copper division ebitda morgan stanley said the us dollar remained firm in early asia trading the dollar could climb if the fed is more hawkish than expected possibly dissuading investors from moving out on the risktaking spectrum cambridge global payments karl schamotta said but then again it might not a widelyperceived shift in rhetoric after jerome powells renomination may have overstated the degree to which the institution itself has pivoted he said if wednesdays dot plot shows policymakers still see inflation rates coming down by mid2022 a more gradual tightening trajectory could be priced in and terminal rate expectations could fall a more dovish fed could touch off a santa claus rally across the currency markets tilting momentum against the dollar into the new year most asiapacific currencies weaken against us dollar amid riskoff sentiment spurred by losses in the majority of regional equity markets following declines in us and european bourses the nearterm focus for financial market participants remains the economic impact of the covid19 omicron variant and meetings from the fed boe and ecb this week commerzbank said the bond market has taken the pullback in fed asset buying with relative calm so far and yields havent shown a huge reaction but next year could be a different and more challenging situation for the central bank declining treasury demand from investment funds raises the risk of higher rates and volatility in 2022 particularly as the fed winds down quantitative easing purchases writes john canavan bond analyst at oxford economics while foreign treasury demand has been offsetting a portion of the shrinking investment fund purchases we dont expect it will be strong enough to compensate for the decline in both investment fund and fed purchases next year canavan wrote adding we anticipate a gradual increase in the 10year treasury yield through 2022 to around 225 at yearend all eyes are on the feds decision on wednesday when the central bank is expected to accelerate the pace at which its paring its bondbuying program some analysts said they are expecting a faster tapering to stoke volatility in the stock market if they execute on that path it will leave a mark on asset prices in our view wrote morgan stanley analysts our guess is that growth will take a hit at a time when its already decelerating and increase the odds of our bear case playing out the fed would be tapering its bondbuying program twice as fast as it did in 2014 when it took the central bank 10 months to wind down its program according to morgan stanley additionally economic growth was accelerating last time the fed tapered while its currently poised to slow blackrock prefers equities over fixed income though it favors inflationlinked bonds in light of the inflationary environment wei li global chief investment strategist at blackrock investment institute said in a webinar blackrock is undwerweight nominal us treasurys and developedmarket government bonds in general expecting yields to gradually head higher but remains overweight on inflationlinked bonds blackrock expects 2022 to be another year of negative nominal bond returns due to slightly higher real yields another rise in breakeven inflation rates and a return of investors demanding a term premium for the risk of holding longterm bonds blackrocks base case is that central banks will respond to inflation in a relatively muted manner supporting its preference for risk assets such as equities over fixed income wei li global chief investment strategist at blackrock investment institute said in a webinar blackrock still sees a combination of still very robust growth dynamics and still low rates which she says should be supportive for risk assets blackrock has a mild overweight in developedmarket and chinese equities oil was little changed in early asian trade traders will likely focus on the moves of the opec group saudi arabias oil minister reminded the market that he and his opec members can change their plans at any moment with regards to easing production cuts cba said and that such an abrupt change of plans would leave oils market shorts ouching like hell cba added gold was little changed in early asia trade it appears gold prices will remain stuck in a trading range until investors get a better idea of how high the fed expects interest rates to go over the next few years  oanda said traders should be prepared for any dovish surprises it said copper was lower in early asian trade as the metal builds up in lme inventories anz said monday marked the fourth consecutive day of stockpile gains the bank noted however the base metals complex can find support amid expectations of further stimulus measures in china after beijing signaled that it would focus on economic stability at the recently concluded central economic work conference anz said shares of gamestop corp and amc entertainment holdings inc tumbled monday dealing a blow to the legions of individual investors who have banded around the two stocks and frequently tout them on social media gamestop dropped 14 to 13688 per share its lowest closing price since march amc shares fell 15 to 2324 their lowest close since may the broader market was down with the sp 500 retreating 09 after closing at a record on friday frankfurtthe policy paths of the worlds major central banks are diverging sharply creating crosswinds for investors as the omicron variant of covid19 clouds an already uneven global recovery and risks aggravating redhot inflation policy makers at three influential central banksthe federal reserve the european central bank and the bank of englandmeet this week to provide guidance on future interest rates they are expected to move at different speeds reflecting varying responses to the pandemic and divergent outlooks for growth and inflation omicron oil demand impact will be mild and shortlived opec says the omicron variants impact on global oil markets wont be as seismic as initially feared because governments and businesses are now better adapted to dealing with the coronavirus the organization of the petroleum exporting countries said monday in its closely watched monthly report opec left unchanged its global oil demand and supply forecasts for 2021 and 2022 however the cartel said that some of the recovery in consumption that it had expected to take place in the final months of this year would shift into early 2022 due to the emergence of the highlytransmissible omicron variant uk sees first death of a person with omicron as government warns of wave of cases londonthe uk reported its first death of a patient with omicron on monday prime minister boris johnson said as the country faces what he called a tidal wave of cases of the new variant it couldnt be determined where the person contracted the variant or whether it was the cause of death the uk health security agency said the individual had been diagnosed in a hospital but gave no indication of his or her vaccination status fedspeak cheat sheet what fed officials said before their december meeting