A hectic week ahead with plenty of announcements from around the world. This week also brings with it several speeches by the world’s leading central bank policy-makers, including members of the Fed Reserve, ECB, BoE and BoJ.

The volatility in the EUR/USD pairing never really materialised as markets absorbed strong economic data from Europe and a speech by Mario Draghi last Friday. The pairing traded in the $1.19 range for most of the trading session, where it currently sits $1.1924. The pound looked somewhat shaky as ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the UK’s long-term issuer rating to AA2 from AA1 and changed the outlook to stable from negative. Moody’s also said it downgraded the BoE’s issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings to AA2 from AA1. It came off its highs of $1.3579 late Thursday/early Friday to trade as low as $1.3491 late on Friday. It has somewhat stabilised to its current level of $1.3505.

US stocks were mainly flat in Friday trade. All three major US indexes finished within 0.10% of their previous close. The Dow shaved 9.64 points (-0.04%) to end the session at 22,349.59. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 added 1.62 points (+0.06%) to end the session at 2,502.22 and the NASDAQ added 4.23 points (+0.07%) to close at 6,426.92. Major European stocks were a bit of a mixed bag, with the FTSE ending 46.74 points (+0.64%) in front to close at 7,310.64 and the DAX down slightly (-7.68 points or -0.06%) to end the session at 12,592.35.

Looking ahead to today and the rest of the week and the week is dominated by speeches from central bank policy makers. Throughout the week, Fed Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, ECB President Mario Draghi, BoE Governor Mark Carney and BoJ Governor Hauhiko Kuroda all speak. The most significant data announcement is the US GDP figure on Thursday. The other significant announcements for the week include:

Monday – A wrap up of the German Election. BoJ Gov & ECB President Mario Draghi, speak. Japan Flash Manufacturing PMI, German Ifo Business Climate, China CB Leading Index

Tuesday – US CB Consumer Confidence & New Home Sales

Wednesday – Fed Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks. US Core Durable Goods Orders, Crude Oil Inventories

Thursday – US Final GDP & Unemployment Claims

Friday – China Caixin Manufacturing PMI, German Retail Sales, UK Current Account, ECB President Mario Draghi and BoE Mark Carney, speak.