Australian interest rates, global manufacturing, US jobs and earnings and the European Central Bank, not to mention the instability in Egypt and the Middle East.
The world is back from holidays and being reminded that emerging markets, or rather the more emerging of global economies, can be a bit hairy, more than many investors realise.
In Australia the Reserve Bank returns to the forefront this week with the first board meeting of the year tomorrow, where no move will be made on interest rates.
On Friday the RBA lays out its latest views on the economy in the first statement of monetary policy for 2011.
The RBA will leave interest rates firmly on hold at the board meeting tomorrow.
The post meeting statement is due at 2.30 pm, as usual.
Recent economic data has had a soft tone and the benign December quarter inflation data has provided plenty of leeway for the RBA to sit for several months and assess the impact of the floods on the economy.
The AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver says, "We expect rates to remain on hold out to May at least but for rate hikes to resume from mid year as flood rebuilding activity combines with mining related investment to push economic growth back up again.
"The RBA’s Statement on Monetary policy will likely be watched for more clues as to how the Bank sees the floods impacting the economic outlook."
We also get the trade balance for December (and preliminary for 2010) as well as building approvals data, house prices for the December quarter and 2010 from the ABS and private sector credit figures from the RBA, as well as its monthly commodity price index when they are issued later this morning.
The December quarter house price data tomorrow is likely to show flat house prices in the final quarter of the year, and building approvals data (Thursday) will be watched for any signs of a rebound after the fall in November.
Tomorrow, Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) lunch in Melbourne.
The NAB business confidence survey for December will also be released on Tuesday.
In corporate releases, we will have Wesfarmers Ltd second quarter retail sales results later today, Hills Holdings Ltd first half results (Wednesday), Tabcorp first half results on Thursday and News Corp second quarter results (Feb. 2 US Eastern Time).
Annual meetings include Copper Range Ltd, Coziron Resources Ltd, GBM Resources Ltd, Hazelwood Resources, Voyager Resources, HGL Ltd, Tower Australia Group Ltd, Dominion Mining Ltd scheme meeting, Northern Uranium, Perth – Renaissance Minerals, Ampella Mining Ltd and Caledon Resources.
We also get the final flood of quarterly reports from resources companies today. Watch for one from Origin Energy.
Crane Group is due to release its final interim profit figures today, along with news of whether the Fletcher Building bid is going to happen.
There were reports late last week that Fletcher has lifted the suggested price above $10 and many analysts expected a statement on Friday, but it didn’t come.
In the US the jobless figures for January are due for release on Friday night, our time, but before then we get the usual start of the month release of surveys of manufacturing and services.
The PMI’s for China, Australia, the US, Europe and a host of other leading economies will be issued from Tuesday onwards.
In the US, the key ISM business conditions survey (due Tuesday) is likely to show a further strengthening in the manufacturing sector and payroll employment data (Friday) is likely to show a gain of 150,000 jobs, according to the AMP’s Dr Oliver.
The data for personal income and spending (Monday) will also be watched closely but is likely to confirm the pick up in consumer spending evident in other data, such as the first estimate of 4th quarter economic growth which showed a strong rise in consumer spending, but weakening business spending.
January car sales figures are out on Tuesday in the US, and later in the week in other economies. In Australia the release is probably on Thursday.
US 4th quarter earnings releases continue.
The figures from Ford and Amazon surprised investors by being worse than expected and containing surprises about costs and margins.
Of the 207 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 71% have beaten analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Reuters.
This week, 102 S&P 500 companies are expected to report, including Exxon, Dell, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical Company, Pfizer, United Parcel Service, Hershey, Time Warner, Visa, Mastercard, AOL and Kellogg.
In Europe, the European Central Bank meets Thursday, but is likely to leave rates on hold.
The EU leaders’ summit on Friday may be more important given the issues around extending the European sovereign debt rescue fund.
The eurozone employment picture will also be released tomorrow night (Tuesday).
In the UK, M4 money supply data for December is due, along with mortgage approvals data for December, which are expected to be very weak.
The UK purchasing manager index for manufacturing for January is also due.
The EU producer price index for December is also set for release on Wednesday and EU retail data for December is out on Thursday night, our time.
Offshore results will include BP (will it pay a dividend for the first time since the Gulf oil spill last year?), Shell, Vodafone, Honda, Panasonic, Toyota and Sony.
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