Assuming no new news on US-China trade or Brexit, next week’s highlight will be the Fed policy meeting, statement and, as is now the case after every meeting, press conference. But given Jay Powell has been popping up everywhere lately, including on Sixty Minutes, to explain the FOMC’s new “patient” approach, there is little likelihood of a bombshell.
US data releases are still a case of catch-up, and thus uncertainty remains over whether more recent data will be released as previously scheduled. Suffice to say, next week may or may not see numbers for housing sentiment and starts, existing home sales, factory orders and a flash estimate of March manufacturing PMI.
Australia, Japan and the eurozone will also flash.
The Bank of England holds a policy meeting as well next week. Lord knows what you do there.
Other Australian data next week include December quarter house prices and population, February jobs, and the minutes of the March RBA meeting. Get out your rose-tinted glasses.
On the local stock front, the daily lists of stocks going ex-dividend are starting to shorten, but there are still some sizeable names cropping up next week.
We’ll also see a raft of out-of-cycle earnings results, from Fonterra ((FSF)), Nufarm ((NUF)), TPG Telecom ((TPM)) and Sigma Healthcare ((SIG)).
Ozforex ((OFX)) will host an investor day.
Thursday is the quarterly expiry of SPI futures and options and ASX index options, which can often lead to exogenous volatility on the day.
