After the holiday yesterday and the solid Chinese trade data, local markets this week will be focusing on the Australian jobs figures for May and a speech by Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens in the US.
As well, offshore sees more of the monthly economic data from China and we will see more market moves after last week’s European Central Bank’s interest rate cuts and funding deals.
In Australia, the May jobs report on Thursday is the major focus of the week with most forecasts for around 10,000 new jobs to have been added last month, with a rise in the unemployment rate to 5.9%.
The ANZ job ads report is out today and will provide some clues as to whether the harsh Federal Budget has hurt hiring intentions.
Besides the jobs report, the focus will be also on the May NAB business survey (later today) to see how the Budget has affected business conditions and confidence and the June consumer sentiment reading on Wednesday from Westpac for signs of a bounce back after the initial negative reaction to the Budget.
Housing finance figures are out later today as well and should show a small rise in the number of loans.
The speech by the RBA Governor Stevens is on financial regulation at an Asian banking and finance conference held by the San Francisco Federal Reserve today. The RBA released his the text of his speech last night ahead of delivery.
In the corporate area there’s not too much news expected, apart from the odd trading update as we move towards the end of the financial year.
CSR’s annual meeting later today in Sydney will be one of the few events of interest this week.
In the US, we can expect a 0.4% gain in May retail sales (Thursday night, our time) and a moderation in producer price inflation (Friday night, our time).
Apple shares split last night and traded as a result of 7-for-1 stock split announced with the March quarter results earlier this year.
Company annual meetings in the US are mostly dull affairs where shareholders don’t really turn up in numbers (except for Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway).
But this week General Motors and Target both hold their AGMs.
GM will be taken to task over a series of vehicle recalls and a fine from the government for covering up the faults which triggered those recalls.
And Target will have to deal with the fallout at its AGM from the hacking of its customer accounts and the theft of the details of more than 70 million of the retailer’s customers. The hack and theft (and the fact the company didn’t know what had gone on) has already seen the CEO removed and other senior executives sacked. Now it’s the board’s turn to face the music.
In the Eurozone, we can expect a bounce back in April industrial production (released Thursday night, our time).
As well, some early reports on production due from Italy, France the UK, are due out tonight, our time.
And continued modest employment growth for the March quarter will be reported on Friday night our time.
But dominating the week will be the fallout from the European Central Bank’s move towards a major easing in monetary policy (which start on June 11 with lower interest rates and a negative interest rate for bank deposits at the central bank).
In Asia, the rest of the economic data from China and some new figures from Japan will headline the coming week.
In China, inflation data later today is likely to show a rise to 2.4% year on year, according to the AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver.
But he says the rise will be only due to a bounce in food prices.
He wrote at the weekend that, "more importantly expect to see a slight pick-up in growth in industrial production, retail sales and investment (Thursday)”.
He says that will be "consistent with the modest improvement seen in recent PMI readings. Money supply growth is likely to have picked up slightly."
Industrial production data is due out in Japan later in the week after the final estimate of first quarter economic growth was released yesterday.
