Friday marks the end of an eventful first quarter for financial markets.
Despite last week’s weakness and the reminders from Spain and Italy that Europe has not solved its problems, we should still see the best first quarter’s performance by some markets since 1998 when the quarter ends on Friday, March 30.
But the important data release of the week globally will come on Saturday in Beijing and Hong Kong when the monthly surveys of manufacturing activity for China are released.
In Australia we get the Reserve Bank’s first financial stability review of the year (there are two each year) on Wednesday and the credit figures for February on Friday.
And we get another speech from RBA Assistant Governor Guy Debelle mid-week.
He spoke last week on bank funding costs.
Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks will also speak during the week on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release job vacancies data for February.
Friday sees RP Data and Rismark release their latest home price data figures, and the Housing Industry Association will release new home sales data for February.
In company news, Nufarm will release earnings results tomorrow.
Transurban Group holds an investor day today and should provide an operational update.
Citibank Australia’s 2011 full year results are due out on Thursday.
In the US, the third estimate of 4th quarter US GDP data is out Thursday night, our time.
The market is expecting unchanged growth from the second estimate of 3% (annual).
Tomorrow night sees more consumer confidence data for March in the US, as well as the Standard & Poors-Case Shiller home price index for January.
Wednesday sees the release of US durable goods orders data for February.
Real personal consumption expenditures and gross domestic purchases price index for the quarter will also be released.
US personal income and outlays data for February is out on Friday and another set of consumer sentiment figures.
In fact with this data, plus the latest weekly unemployment benefits figures on Thursday night, we should have a reasonable idea of how the US economy has travelled in the first quarter.
Tonight, our time, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at the National Association for Business Economics economic policy conference.
Thursday sees Research in Motion unveil earnings figures in the US.
Electricals retailer Best Buy, drug store chain Walgreen and home builder, Lennar Corp are also down to release earnings results.
In Europe, EU finance ministers and central bankers will meet for a two-day summit in Denmark at which they will consider an expansion in the size of Europe’s debt firewall by combining the 500 billion euros planned for the European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM), with the remaining 240 billion euros in the earlier stabilisation fund (EFSF).
Greece, Portugal and Ireland will be on the agenda, especially the complaints from Ireland about its debts and how they are being unfairly increased.
UK 3rd quarter (December) GDP figures are due for release as well as current account numbers.
The German IFO survey will be released tonight, our time, and eurozone confidence data will be released Thursday.
The OECD will release an interim assessment of its latest economic outlook on Thursday night, our time, in Paris.
In Asia the end of month economic data from Japan will dominate later in the week with unemployment, retail sales, inflation and industrial production being released.
They are out on Friday.
But the big release for the week will be on Saturday when Chinese officials and HSBC are scheduled to release their separate reports on manufacturing activity.
HSBC’s release of its ‘flash’ estimate for March last week showed a surprise fall, which spooked markets.
Market watchers are hoping for a small improvement in the final figure and for a better reading from the official survey which tends to look at larger companies than the HSBC survey which focuses on smaller operations.
Given the nervousness on Thursday and Friday flowing from that weak report from HSBC, markets want to see a stronger reading this weekend.
