Economic wrap: all eyes on Yellen - Westpac

Analysts at Westpac offered an economic wrap with no data to report for overnight, it is all eyes on Yellen.

Key Quotes:

"Economic Event Risks Today:

Australia receives the Jan NAB Business Survey. Business Conditions flourished last month, +5pts to 11. However, leading indicators are not as promising with retail conditions remaining soft. As such, there is potential for a partial reversal from December’s strong gain.

A large amount of European data is released including Eurozone Q4 GDP (second estimate). Also of interest is Germany Jan CPI given concerns of two-speed Eurozone inflation.

China CPI and PPI for Jan are out. The market is expecting a rise in both measures – CPI to 2.4% from 2.1% and PPI to 6.6% from 5.5%. Concerns over deflationary producer prices in the last few years subsided in late 2016 with the last few months showing strong growth.

In the US, the Jan NFIB Small Business Optimism index follows a post-election rise last month. We also have Jan PPI which saw a strong result from food and energy in December.

The day’s market highlight should be Fed Chair Yellen’s semi-annual testimony before the Senate’s banking committee, markets looking for any clues regarding policy rate action at the March meeting. Other Fedspeak includes Lacker at an economic forecast conference, Lockhart on crises, recession and recovery, and Kaplan participates in a panel discussion."