A short week in many countries because of Easter.
In Australia it will be an unusually long weekend, thanks to Easter and Anzac Day coinciding.
Markets will be closed from Friday to next Wednesday.
In the US the first quarter earnings season continues, there are central bank meeting in several countries, we also get US house sales and the start of European first quarter and half year earnings.
In Australia, the minutes from the Reserve Bank’s last rate setting meeting out tomorrow will show that the RBA remains on hold for now but still retains a mild tightening bias.
But the board meeting was held ahead of the March jobs figures which were quite strong.
We also get data for March quarter export and import prices on Wednesday which will show that the terms of trade remains strong.
Producer price inflation data for the March quarter is out on Thursday, with the Consumer Price Index out next Wednesday, the day after the holiday break.
In the corporate area, the major release is the BHP Billiton third quarter production review out on Wednesday.
Other resource companies releasing quarterly production reviews include Newcrest Mining, Santos and Mount Gibson Iron.
Woolworths releases third quarter sales figures later today.
And Wednesday will see Wesfarmers release third quarter retail sales figures for Coles Group and Bunnings.
Investors will compare those to the Woolies numbers.
Australian Pharmaceutical Industries will report first half earnings, and has already forecast a weaker result on the back of the Queensland floods.
Regional Pay TV group, Austar United Communications will also report first quarter earnings.
And insurer Tower Australia Group reveals interim earnings results for the period to Match 31.
AGMs will be held by companies including Woodside Petroleum, Laconia Resources, CPI Group, Capral, Caltex Australia, Pacific Star Network, Amex Resources, Pryme Oil & Gas, United Overseas Australia, Castlemaine Goldfields, Bathurst Resources, Ferraus, Southern Hemisphere Mining, Gulf Resources and Bougainville Copper.
And Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will address an Australian Institute of Company Directors event in Sydney, while Virgin Blue chief executive John Borghetti also speaks in Sydney later in the week.
With inflation a growing concern, the coming week brings central bank meetings in a number of major emerging markets, notably Sweden, Hungary, Brazil, Turkey, Israel and Thailand (see story above).
In the US, it will be a run of housing data releases over the week ahead starting with a home builders survey on Monday, housing starts due Tuesday and existing home sales due Wednesday both of which are expected to rise after a very weak February and a house price index due Thursday which is likely to remain soft.
A survey of manufacturers in the Philadelphia region is likely to show that conditions remain reasonably solid.
The March quarter earnings reporting season will hot up with 150 or so major US companies due to report.
The US first quarter earnings reports will be dominated by banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
Yahoo also reports among the tech giants.
Two of the biggest oil service groups, Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd., are due to report, while giants Intel (and its smaller computer chip rival, AMD) and General Electric also report.
Delta Airlines also reports, as does Johnson & Johnson and coal group Peabody Energy, which details the impact of the bad weather on its Australian operations in the quarter.
Amex and AT&T are two more big US groups due to report, along with McDonalds, Verizon (the big Telco like AT&T) and the big gold miner Newmont which has significant operations in Australia.
In Europe earnings are expected from companies including drug group, Novartis, luxury products maker, LVMH and auto group Peugeot.
Elsewhere, European Monetary Union consumer confidence data for April is due, as is EU current account balance data for February.
In Asia Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors report in South Korea and Chinalco in China.
