A very big week ahead for the economy in Australia, the US, Europe and the UK, not to mention China and other economies in Asia.
It’s central bank week, the RBA meets as does the European Central Bank and the Bank of England; US unemployment for April is out, the American quarterly earnings season is on and three of the big Australian banks report their interim profits.
In Australia, the Reserve Bank is expected to leave interest rates on hold.
The AMP’s Dr Shane Oliver and Westpac’s’ chief economist, bill Evans, are two of many economists who see no increase in rates coming from tomorrow’s RBA board meeting.
Dr Oliver pointed out (as noted above) that “while inflation was higher than expected in the March quarter it was mainly driven by temporary factors, such as the impact of the floods."
The RBA will also release its quarterly statement on monetary policy on Friday with forecasts for growth and prices that will be considered by the RBA board tomorrow.
As well as the RBA meeting, we will also see March quarter house price data later today (which will show a fall after two private measurement services revealed falls late last week).
We will also get March retail sales and building approvals data on Thursday.
The building approvals are tipped to show a modest rise after falling sharply in February, while the retail sales figures should produce a small rise after the solid 0.5% increase in February.
The Reserve Bank’s commodity price index is out this afternoon and is expected to show another gain, despite the solid rise in the value of the Australian dollar.
We will also get the April car industry sales figures around midweek.
The Australian Industry Group/PricewaterhouseCoopers performance of manufacturing (PMI) index for April is also due today, along with the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute inflation gauge for April.
The AIG/PwC performance of services index (PSI) is out Wednesday, as is the Housing Industry Association (HIA) new home sales data for March.
In the corporate area, the ANZ Group (Tuesday), National Australia Bank (Thursday) and Westpac (Wednesday) will all report interim profit figures this week (See above story).
And for a spot of bank bashing, the Senate inquiry into banking is due to report on Friday.
Orica and BT Investment Management are due to release interim profit results later today.
And company meetings will be dominated by the Australian meeting of Rio Tinto on Thursday.
Other meetings include Aristocrat Leisure, APN News & Media, Universal Coal, Country Road, Hutchison Telecommunications, Coca-Cola Amatil, Southern Crown Resources, Alumina, Santos, Ausenco, Central Asia Resources, Quest Minerals, Red Fork Energy, West Wits Mining, Avalon Minerals, Metallica Minerals, Tandou Ltd, MediVac Ltd, YTC, Bassari Resources, Crossland Uranium Mines, Eco Quest, and Navigator Resources.
The ASX also releases the latest share ownership survey details.
In the US, the big data release is the April jobs figures on Friday.
Most economists reckon they should show 180,000 new jobs and no change in the unemployment rate.
Some however see a 200,000 plus gain with manufacturing activity solid in some parts of the country, but others think the jobs figures could be lower after a couple of key surveys showed a weakening in activity and jobless claims rose back over 400,000 a week.
The ISM manufacturing conditions index due tonight, our time, is forecast to show a small fall, but remain at a high level and the ISM services conditions index due Wednesday is also expected to remain strong.
And US car industry sales figures for last month are due out tomorrow.
We also get factory orders data and productivity figures.
The US quarterly reporting season continues with results from companies including Dow components Pfizer Inc and Kraft Foods Inc.
Other companies reporting include Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Comcast Corp, CBS, Time Warner Inc, News Corp, CVS Caremark Corp, General Motors Co and Constellation Energy Group Inc.
Reuters says that the coming week will see 108 companies from the S&P 500 reporting quarterly results.
So far, 291 companies from the S&P 500 have reported results. Of those companies reporting, 38 have issued negative earnings outlooks, compared with 23 that have issued positive earnings outlooks, for the next quarter. The majority of companies have beaten forecasts.
And Canada goes to the polls tonight, our time for a Federal election.
In Europe, the Bank of England holds its April policy meeting, while the European Central Bank will also make its decision on interest rates
The March European Monetary Union producer price index is also expected, as is EU retail sales figures for March.
