1. Bank of England Minutes (October 5-6)
2. Federal Reserve Bank's Beige Book

Bank of England Minutes (October 5-6) (8:30 GMT, 4:30 EDT)

Outlook: At its October policy meeting, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.5 percent for the second month, as expected.  The decision came at a point of high and accelerating inflation along with slowing economic growth.  The surge in energy prices, pushing inflation to its highest rate in eight years, has limited the MPC's ability to lower interest rates in order to stimulate growth as manufacturing struggles to come out of a recession.  After a unanimous vote in September to stay the rates, minutes for October will be scrutinized for clues of disagreement.  It is likely that some members brought up the possibility of another rate cut but may not have voted in its favor so soon after the first cut.  The MPC is most likely still waiting to see the longer-term effects of the August rate cut and for the revised growth and inflation numbers which are released in November.  Although the presently high inflation has been largely written off as a temporary effect from oil prices, inflationary worries are still expected to have dominated the meeting.

Previous: Minutes from the September meeting of the MPC showed a unanimous vote to keep interest rates at 4.5 percent after cutting rates for the first time in 2 years with a divided vote in August.  Topics under consideration during the meeting were the impacts of Hurricane Katrina, which were expected to be relatively small on US GDP growth, and higher oil prices.  Inflationary pressures were outweighed by weak growth and consumer demand at this meeting.  There was still no definite indicator of how much the first rate cut benefitted the economy, but the post-hurricane run up of prices, with inflation peaking over the target rate of 2 percent for the first time was seen by the MPC as temporary.
Despite the unified decision during this meeting, analysts continued to expect another rate cut in the coming months with the committee identifying possible risks to the economy in cautionary tones. 

Federal Reserve Bank's Beige Book (18:00 GMT, 14:00 EDT)

Outlook: The Federal Reserve Bank's Beige Book to be released this Wednesday will take a regional approach in assessing the current state of the U.S. economy.  Given the increasing certainty of a Federal Funds Rate hike on November 1st, the Beige Book is unlikely to offer any new information in the way of short-term Fed policy.  However, because the report was compiled in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it will offer important insight into concerns over increasing oil prices and the resulting inflationary pressure.  The regional focus of the report will highlight the impact the storms had on Midwestern cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, and Cleveland that rely heavily on New Orleans as a port of transportation and an energy hub.  Although core inflation in the United States has been relatively subdued, inflation continues to be a major concern especially after wholesale prices made their largest increase in over 15 years in September.  The Beige Book is likely to reflect policymakers' concerns that soaring energy prices will spill over into second-round wage and price-setting effects, resulting in widespread inflation.  It is more than probable that the Federal Open Market Committee will increase rates to prevent such a trickle-down effect.  While the report may show that regional economies have suffered minimally in the immediate weeks following the hurricanes, overall economic growth is expected to fall by an entire percentage point for the remainder of the year.

Richard Lee is a Currency Strategist at FXCM.