The week ahead

The agreed 4 month extension on the Greek bailout package will help to bring some needed stabilisation to global markets. In the latter part of this week the markets will be looking to Janet Yellen's latest announcement on US monetary policy for another clue as to when the US might see a possible rise in interest rates. The second estimate of US Q4 GDP figures will be released this week, the market is predicting a slight dip to 2.1% from a previous estimate of 2.6%. February's PMI data for China is released on Thursday with a predicted decline down to 49.5% from Januarys figure of 49.7%. Finally the second set of UK GDP revisions will be released this Thursday showing a figure of 2.7% maintained.