Next Week At A Glance

This story features JB HI-FI LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: JBH

 By Greg Peel

Tonight is the US jobs report for July, and this one has taken on even greater importance given the recent weakening of US economic data. Economists are expecting a loss of 55,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to tick up from 9.5% to 9.6%.

The numbers are however again complicated by the expiry of temporary census worker jobs, so Wall Street will be concentrating only on the private sector component. Forecasts are in the plus 80,000-100,000 range.

The actual unemployment rate can be a bit of a guess as it is dependent not only on jobs lost or added but the number of people who declare themselves to be seeking employment offset by those who have given up. June saw a big drop in the unemployment rate not because of jobs added but because of capitulation.

With jobs out of the way, attention will move to Tuesday's Fed monetary policy meeting. The cash rate will remain as is but Wall Street is now convinced the Fed will begin to re-implement quantitative easing measures, such as again buying up mortgage securities.

If so, this would likely prove a fillip for Wall Street even though the fact the Fed is forced to once again act really is indicative of the weakening economy.

Other data releases in the US next week include wholesale inventories and sales, the monthly trade balance and Treasury budget and, next Friday, another consumer confidence survey, retail sales and the CPI.

China will report another round of monthly data on Wednesday, with the usual PPI, CPI, retail sales, industrial production and investment numbers.

Next Friday the eurozone will release its first estimate of second quarter GDP.

In Australia we will have the NAB business sentiment survey and Westpac consumer confidence survey next week along with home loan numbers on Monday and our own unemployment figures on Thursday.

The Australian reporting season will step up a gear next week just as the US season will begin to wind down. All hell will break loose in the subsequent fortnight.

Next week's result highlights include JB Hi-Fi ((JBH)), Cochlear ((COH)), CommBank ((CBA)), Stockland ((SGP)), Qantas ((QAN)) and Telstra ((TLS)), just to name a few.

For a more comprehensive preview of next week's events, please refer to "The Monday Report", published each Monday morning. For all economic data release dates, ex-div dates and times and other relevant information, please refer to the FNArena Calendar.

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