1. Tesla Shares Tumble After Layoff Announcement
Tesla (TSLA) shares closed almost 13% lower on Friday after the company announced that it is cutting full-time staff by seven percent. In an email on Thursday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the layoffs were needed to boost Model 3 production numbers. After a strong finish to 2018, Tesla starts the year by laying off more than 3,000 full-time workers, which amounts to 7 percent of its staff.*
2. Dollar Holds At Two Week High
The dollar held steady near a two-week high against a basket of currencies on Monday, as investor risk appetite held up despite the latest data showing China’s 2018 economic growth slowing to a near three-decade low. The dollar index, which measures its strength against a group of six major currencies, was last seen trading flat at 95.968 after climbing to 96.394 percent on Friday, its strongest since Jan. 4. Hopes for a truce in U.S.-China trade tensions, a more dovish-sounding Federal Reserve and optimism that Britain could avoid a “No-Deal” Brexit are some of the factors behind the increase of investor risk appetite.**
3. British Prime Minister May to reveal her ‘Plan B’ for Brexit
As widely expected, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s initial Brexit deal, or ‘Withdrawal Agreement,’ was rejected by a majority of the U.K. Parliament last week, giving the prime minister three working days to come up with an alternative plan. May has since held cross-party talks although opposition parties have called on her to both rule out a ‘no-deal’ Brexit or to hold a second referendum. May is due to lay out a ‘Plan B’ for Brexit to lawmakers on Monday as she looks to secure a fresh withdrawal agreement before the March 29 deadline to leave the European Union (EU).***
You can find and trade CFDs on all of the above mentioned assets and more on BDSwiss Forex/CFD platforms.
This Week’s Most Important Upcoming Events:
| Time | Cur. | Imp. | Event | Forecast | Previous | |||
| Monday, January 21, 2019 | ||||||||
| All Day | Holiday | United States – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | ||||||
| 02:00 | CNY | GDP (YoY) (Q4) | 6.4% | 6.4% | 6.5% | |||
| Tentative | CNY | Industrial Production (YoY) (Dec) | 5.7% | 5.3% | 5.4% | |||
| Tentative | GBP | U.K. Prime Minister May Speaks | ||||||
| Tuesday, January 22, 2019 | ||||||||
| 09:30 | GBP | Average Earnings Index +Bonus (Nov) | 3.3% | 3.3% | ||||
| 09:30 | GBP | Claimant Count Change (Dec) | 20.0K | 21.9K | ||||
| 10:00 | EUR | German ZEW Economic Sentiment (Jan) | -18.3 | -17.5 | ||||
| 15:00 | USD | Existing Home Sales (Dec) | 5.24M | 5.32M | ||||
| 21:45 | NZD | CPI (QoQ) (Q4) | 0.0% | 0.9% | ||||
| Wednesday, January 23, 2019 | ||||||||
| Tentative | JPY | BoJ Monetary Policy Statement | ||||||
| Tentative | JPY | BoJ Outlook Report (YoY) | ||||||
| Tentative | JPY | BoJ Press Conference | ||||||
| 13:30 | CAD | Core Retail Sales (MoM) (Nov) | -0.5% | 0.0% | ||||
| Thursday, January 24, 2019 | ||||||||
| 00:30 | AUD | Employment Change (Dec) | 16.5K | 37.0K | ||||
| 08:30 | EUR | German Manufacturing PMI (Jan) | 51.3 | 51.5 | ||||
| 12:45 | EUR | Deposit Facility Rate | -0.40% | -0.40% | ||||
| 12:45 | EUR | ECB Marginal Lending Facility | 0.25% | 0.25% | ||||
| 12:45 | EUR | ECB Interest Rate Decision (Jan) | 0.00% | 0.00% | ||||
| 13:30 | EUR | ECB Press Conference | ||||||
| 16:00 | USD | Crude Oil Inventories | -2.683M | |||||
| Friday, January 25, 2019 | ||||||||
| 09:00 | EUR | German Ifo Business Climate Index | 100.7 | 101.0 | ||||
| 13:30 | USD | Core Durable Goods Orders (MoM) (Dec) | 0.2% | 0.4% | ||||
This Week’s Upcoming Earnings Reports:
| Name | Symbol | Next Earnings Date |
| UBS Group | UBSG | Jan 22, 2019 |
| IBM | IBM | Jan 22, 2019 |
| J&J | JNJ | Jan 22, 2019 |
| Procter&Gamble | PG | Jan 23, 2019 |
| United Technologies | UTX | Jan 23, 2019 |
| Sky PLC | BSBAy | Jan 24, 2019 |
| Intel | INTC | Jan 24, 2019 |
| Starbucks | SBUX | Jan 24, 2019 |
| American Airlines | AAL | Jan 24, 2019 |
*Source: FXStreet Jan 21, 2019 2:48 AM ET
**Source: Reuters Jan 21, 2019 3:53 AM ET
***Source: CNBC Jan 21, 2019 03:07 AM ET
