Economic Calendar Fetcher

Economic Calendar Fetcher

Overview

Retrieve upcoming economic events and data releases from the Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) Economic Calendar API. This skill fetches scheduled economic indicators including central bank monetary policy decisions, employment reports, inflation data (CPI/PPI), GDP releases, retail sales, manufacturing data, and other market-moving events that impact financial markets.

The skill uses a Python script to query the FMP API and returns raw JSON or text output. The assistant then filters events, assesses market impact, and generates a chronological Markdown report for each scheduled event. No files are generated automatically.

Key Capabilities:

• Fetch economic events for specified date ranges (max 90 days)
• Support flexible API key provision (environment variable or CLI argument)
• Filter by impact level, country, or event type (filtering performed by the assistant)
• Present filtered results as structured Markdown reports with impact analysis (assistant-generated, not script-generated)
• Default to next 7 days for quick market outlook

Data Source:

• FMP Economic Calendar API: https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/economic-calendar (singular "economic")
• Covers major economies: US, EU, UK, Japan, China, Canada, Australia
• Event types: Central bank decisions, employment, inflation, GDP, trade, housing, surveys
• Note: the legacy api/v3/economic_calendar endpoint was fully retired by FMP on 2025-08-31 and now returns 403 Legacy Endpoint — do not use it, including as a fallback.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user requests:

1. Economic Calendar Queries:

   • "What economic events are coming up this week?"
   • "Show me the economic calendar for the next two weeks"
   • "When is the next FOMC meeting?"
   • "What major economic data is being released next month?"

2. Market Event Planning:

   • "What should I watch for in the markets this week?"
   • "Are there any high-impact economic releases coming?"
   • "When is the next jobs report / CPI release / GDP report?"

3. Specific Date Range Requests:

   • "Get economic events from January 1 to January 31"
   • "What's on the economic calendar for Q1 2025?"

4. Country-Specific Queries:

   • "Show me US economic data releases next week"
   • "What ECB events are scheduled?"
   • "When is Japan releasing their inflation data?"

DO NOT use this skill for:

• Past economic events (use market-news-analyst for historical analysis)
• Corporate earnings calendars (this skill excludes earnings)
• Real-time market data or live quotes
• Technical analysis or chart interpretation

Prerequisites

• FMP API Key (required): Sign up at https://financialmodelingprep.com for a free key (250 requests/day). Set via FMP_API_KEY environment variable or pass --api-key to the script.
• Python 3.10+: Required to run skills/economic-calendar-fetcher/scripts/get_economic_calendar.py.
• No third-party packages: The script uses only the Python standard library.

Workflow

Follow these steps to fetch and analyze the economic calendar:

Step 1: Obtain FMP API Key

Check for API key availability (in priority order):

1. Recommended: Check if FMP_API_KEY environment variable is set — this keeps the key out of session logs
2. Acceptable: Use --api-key CLI argument for one-off runs
3. Not recommended: Asking the user to paste the key into chat — session logs may retain it
4. If user doesn't have an API key, provide instructions:
   • Visit https://financialmodelingprep.com
   • Sign up for free account (250 requests/day limit)
   • Navigate to API dashboard to obtain key

Example user interaction:

User: "Show me economic events for next week"
Assistant: "I'll fetch the economic calendar. I'll use the FMP_API_KEY environment variable if it's set. Otherwise, please pass the key via --api-key when running the script."

Step 2: Determine Date Range

Set appropriate date range based on user request:

Default (no specific dates): Today + 7 days User specifies period: Use exact dates (validate format: YYYY-MM-DD) Maximum range: 90 days (FMP API limitation)

Examples:

• "Next week" → Today to +7 days
• "Next two weeks" → Today to +14 days
• "January 2025" → 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31
• "Q1 2025" → 2025-01-01 to 2025-03-31

Validate date range:

• Ensure start date ≤ end date
• Ensure range ≤ 90 days
• Warn if querying past dates

Step 3: Execute API Fetch Script

Run the get_economic_calendar.py script with appropriate parameters:

Basic usage (default 7 days):

python3 skills/economic-calendar-fetcher/scripts/get_economic_calendar.py --api-key YOUR_KEY

With specific date range:

python3 skills/economic-calendar-fetcher/scripts/get_economic_calendar.py \
  --from 2025-01-01 \
  --to 2025-01-31 \
  --api-key YOUR_KEY \
  --format json

Using environment variable (no --api-key needed):

export FMP_API_KEY=your_key_here
python3 skills/economic-calendar-fetcher/scripts/get_economic_calendar.py \
  --from 2025-01-01 \
  --to 2025-01-07

Script parameters:

• --from: Start date (YYYY-MM-DD) - default: today
• --to: End date (YYYY-MM-DD) - default: today + 7 days
• --api-key: FMP API key (optional if FMP_API_KEY env var set)
• --format: Output format (json or text) - default: json
• --output: Output file path (optional, default: stdout)

Handle errors and empty results:

• Invalid API key → Ask user to verify key
• Rate limit exceeded (429) → Suggest waiting or upgrading FMP tier
• Restricted endpoint (402 Payment Required) → The script raises a clear error stating the current FMP subscription tier does not include the Economic Calendar endpoint. Tell the user they need to upgrade their FMP plan at https://financialmodelingprep.com/ — do not treat this as "zero events" and do not fall back to the legacy v3 endpoint (it was retired 2025-08-31 and returns 403 Legacy Endpoint).
• Network errors → Check your connection and re-run the script
• Invalid date format → Provide correct format example
• Empty list [] for a plausible current/future range: As of the current script version, an empty list from the API is a genuine "no events" response — a 404 or restricted-endpoint response now raises an explicit error instead of being silently converted to []. If you still suspect missing data, re-verify the date range and API key rather than assuming a broken endpoint.

Step 4: Parse and Filter Events

Process the JSON response from the script:

1. Parse event data: Extract all events from API response
2. Apply user filters if specified:
   • Impact level: "High", "Medium", "Low"
   • Country: "US", "EU", "JP", "CN", etc.
   • Event type: FOMC, CPI, Employment, GDP, etc.
   • Currency: USD, EUR, JPY, etc.

Filter examples:

• "Show only high-impact events" → Filter impact == "High"
• "US events only" → Filter country == "US"
• "Central bank decisions" → Search event name for "Rate", "Policy", "FOMC", "ECB", "BOJ"

Event data structure:

{
  "date": "2025-01-15 14:30:00",
  "country": "US",
  "event": "Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY",
  "currency": "USD",
  "previous": 2.6,
  "estimate": 2.7,
  "actual": null,
  "change": null,
  "impact": "High",
  "changePercentage": null
}

Step 5: Assess Market Impact

Evaluate the market significance of each event:

Impact Level Classification (from FMP):

• High Impact: Major market-moving events

  • FOMC rate decisions, ECB/BOJ policy meetings
  • Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), CPI, GDP
  • Market typically shows 0.5-2%+ intraday volatility

• Medium Impact: Significant but less volatile

  • Retail Sales, Industrial Production
  • PMI surveys, Consumer Confidence
  • Housing data, Durable Goods Orders

• Low Impact: Minor indicators

  • Weekly jobless claims (unless extreme)
  • Regional manufacturing surveys
  • Minor auction results

Additional Context Factors:

1. Current Market Sensitivity:

   • High inflation environment → CPI/PPI elevated importance
   • Recession fears → Employment data more critical
   • Rate cut speculation → Central bank meetings crucial

2. Surprise Potential:

   • Compare estimate vs. previous reading
   • Large expected changes = higher attention
   • Consensus uncertainty = higher impact potential

3. Event Clustering:

   • Multiple related events same day = amplified impact
   • Example: CPI + Retail Sales + Fed speech = Very High impact day

4. Forward Significance:

   • Does this event influence upcoming central bank decisions?
   • Is this a preliminary or final reading?
   • Will this data be revised?