The Australian jobs report for August will be a dominating story for local markets this week, along with Chinese economic data for last month.
The price of iron ore and the value of the Aussie dollar will also be major influences.
Offshore the most newsworthy corporate event will be the Apple product launch Wednesday morning, our time, in California.
The June 30 earnings reports have either finished (in Australia) or are on to the July 30 companies and a few smaller stragglers in the US and elsewhere.
In Australia, the ANZ job ads is out later today and is expected to show another small gain in August, as will the NAB’s business conditions and confidence survey tomorrow and the Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer confidence on Wednesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases the housing finance data for July tomorrow which is expected to show a small rise. Lending finance data from the ABS is due out on Friday.
And on Thursday the August jobs report and unemployment data is tipped to show a small improvement from July with a forecast 10,000 new jobs created and the unemployment rate falling back to 6.3% after July’s partly statistical spike.
Analysts will be watching the jobless figures closely and how the ABS has arrived at them after changing the way of classifying how people are looking for work in the July report.
There are a couple of earnings reports due out this week from Sigma Pharmaceuticals and Myer – both on Thursday.
Myer’s report will be closely watched to see if there are any signs of an improvement in earnings and profit margins in the last couple of months after the May budget hit consumer confidence.
In the US, it’s a slow week for economic data with August retail sales data out on Friday night, our time.
Economists expect the report to show modest growth after the flat outcome for July.
This is likely to be supported by a further lift in consumer confidence (also Friday).
The Apple iPhone launch happens early Wednesday morning, our time in California.
Earnings reports this week include some Canadian companies, such as Transcontinental and the Hudson’s Bay Company.
US companies reporting including Barnes and Noble, the struggling book seller.
Supermarket giant the Kroger Co is also down to report this week, along with Darden Restaurants, tech stocks Psividia Corp and Palo Alto Networks, and UK soccer club Manchester United.
In Europe, the focus is on the continuing market reaction to last week’s rate cut and limited easing campaign announced by the European Central Bank.
The move has seen yields on two year government debt in a number of eurozone countries fall below zero on Friday (joining German yields which have been in negative territory for some weeks).
In Asia China’s August economic data is the focus, starting with the trade data later today.
According to the AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver, the data is expected to show exports up 10% and imports up 4%.
Imports of iron ore, oil, copper and soybeans will be closely examined by analysts.
As well, lending and credit data will be released midweek and are expected to show a bit of a bounce back after weakness seen in July.
As well Dr Oliver says CPI inflation (on Wednesday) will fall back to an annual rate of 2.2% year on year.
And on Saturday, we should expected slight falls in growth for retail sales, fixed asset investment and industrial production. Watch especially for steel production figures.
