End of the month and the quarter in the week ahead, and the half year for three of our big banks – ANZ, NAB and Westpac – and other companies like CSR and Orica.
In Australia it’s a light week for data as we run towards the Easter break, with markets closing on Friday and not open until next Tuesday morning (although there will be some trading over the long break).
The Reserve Bank releases the February credit data on Thursday and the Bureau of Statistics releases more detailed figures on the February labour force report.
The Bureau also releases its latest jobs vacancy figures midweek which could show another rise.
In the US, the focus will be back to inflation with the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core private consumption deflator, for February to be released on Thursday and likely to show a small rise in annual inflation to 1.6% year on year.
The AMP’s chief Economist, Dr Shane Oliver says that “while personal spending is likely to have been soft, disposable income growth is likely to be strong pointing to a pick-up in spending ahead. "
The last reading for March consumer confidence is expected to be strong, home price growth to remain solid (both due tomorrow) and pending home sales figures are out on Tuesday.
Cleveland Fed head Loretta Mester, who will be speaking on monetary policy tonight while William Dudley head of the New York Fed will be discussing financial regulation before the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, also tonight.
And the third and final estimate of US December quarter economic growth will be issued on Wednesday.
In Europe, eurozone economic confidence readings (tomorrow) for March are likely to have slipped, but remain strong, while the third estimate of UK 4th quarter GDP is due out on Thursday.
Japanese data for February (Friday) is likely to show a bounce back in industrial production and continuing labour market strength.
