It’s a big day for capital markets with two interest rate decisions and a ton of earnings reports looming

It’s a big day for capital markets as investors await interest rate decisions from both the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. The expectation is that Japan could raise rates — and that the Fed will signal it will start cutting this fall, likely in September. The Bank of England will follow suit yesterday

Also set to drive sentiment today: Earnings reports from HSBC, Arm Holdings, and Qualcomm, among others, as well as China’s latest purchasing managers’ index and a barrel of macro data from Hong Kong to Australia.

What everyone wants to know: Will Meta’s 2Q results today spook investors as much as Microsoft’s did yesterday? The Redmond-headquartered company’s disappointing Azure cloud sales spooked investors who had already given the thumbs-down to Tesla and Alphabet last week as skepticism builds about the commercial viability of AI.

A sliver of light? Samsung (a net beneficiary of spending by companies and Big Tech on AI) reported a sharp rise in net income just before we hit “send” on this morning’s issue. The Korean giant said surging semiconductor sales drove its results for the quarter.

And then… Apple and Amazon will announce their results tomorrow.

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AND IN OUR REGION- A USD 820 mn tranche from Egypt’s IMF loan should arrive in the “coming days,” the country’s Finance Minister, Ahmed Kouchouk, said in a statement released yesterday after the IMF gave the green light to the third review of Egypt’s USD 8 bn loan program. Kouchouk described the decision as a “vote of confidence” in the government’s economic policies and a “message of reassurance.”

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets mostly in the green this morning as investors wait for macro data and an interest rate decision in Japan — and prepare for a long day of earnings as the clock marches on. Australia’s ASX 200, Korea’s Kospi and both the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite are in the green. Only the Nikkei is (ever so slightly) in the red as we prepare to hit “send” on this morning’s issue.

Both Wall Street and European equity futures were mixed in overnight trading as investors largely took a wait-and-see approach.