review the upcoming economic events that you should be monitoring during the week.

Last week was expected to be quiet but you can never predict what will happen. Monday

and Tuesday lived up to expectations but the Federal Reserve minutes started the market

roller coaster. The Fed minutes were more dovish than expected which started a gold

rally and sent the US dollar tumbling. Friday was a bloodbath for global equities after

Chinese manufacturing data moved farther into contraction upsetting investors after a month

of stimulus from the Chinese government. Oil prices fell to new lows as inventories climbed

weighing on energy equities. This week will once again focus on the upcoming

Federal Reserve decision. Federal Reserve officials want to lift short-term interest

rates above zero before the year is out, based on continued improvement in the labor market

and reasonable confidence that inflation will head higher. They're getting no help from

financial markets right now. Most of the turmoil in credit markets has

until recently been concentrated in the energy sector, which is getting hit by a plunge in

crude oil prices, which fell below $40 a barrel in New York trading Friday for the first time

in more than six years. But the selling has become more broad-based over the last few

weeks, pushing up borrowing costs for companies across a wide range of industries.

Other measures of financial conditions show tightening as well. An index maintained by

economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. points to the tightest conditions since October 2011,

in large part due to the recent surge in the value of the dollar versus other currencies.

And then there was Greece. A day after Alexis Tsipras resigned as prime minister and called

new elections, a couple of dozen members of the Syriza party broke away to form a new

party they called Popular Unity. Party leader Panagiotis Lafazanis immediately held a press

conference and said the breakaway group would campaign on an anti-bailout ticket.

As we move into the height of the vacation season with UK summer bank holiday on Monday,

traders will be leaving their offices early this week to enjoy the end of the summer.

The calendar is almost bare. There are the standard weekly releases but

nothing to excite. There will be a lot of Federal Reserve speakers on the calendar ahead

of the US Labor Day holiday weekend. Monday is void of events; Tuesday brings New Zealand

inflation data and German Ifo reports and then US consumer confidence. Wednesday’s

big event will be the crude oil weekly report. Thursday’s main event will be US pending

home sales and then Friday the week will end with UK GDP.