Next Week At A Glance

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

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.

By Greg Peel

There's little more to be said on the subject of central bank speculation. The timetable is as follows: Fed symposium Jackson Hole August 30 to September 1, RBA meeting September 4, ECB meeting September 6, Fed meeting September 13. There may or may not be news from Europe ahead of the big one – perhaps with regard to whether the Spanish government and ECB have come to an agreement on the implementation of bond purchases – but everyone's on a summer break in Europe so one can't expect much.

It's a pity the Olympics are not beginning next week rather than ending, given it's hard to see global markets having anything to do before month's end. The real question is as to whether the long wait leads to impatience, and whether impatience leads to a pullback in risk positions. From Wall Street's point of view, the technical level of 1415 may well prove to be a line not yet worth crossing to the upside, without further news.

There'll be plenty of data to flow under the bridge before then, for what it's worth. After today's Chinese trade balance we'll see first estimates of June quarter GDP next week from Japan and Europe, and a busy week for US releases. The US results season has pretty much drawn to a close.

US data will include inflation numbers, housing sentiment and housing starts, retail sales, industrial production, inventories, and the Empire State and Philly Fed manufacturing indices.

The economic highlights for the week in Australia will be the NAB business and Westpac consumer confidence surveys.

Which leaves the real focus for Australia next week as stock-specific, as the local result season steps up into third gear. We're into the “too many to list” phase of the season now but a few highlights next week will be JB Hi Fi ((JBH)), representing the retail sector, Commonwealth Bank ((CBA)) representing banking along with trading updates from National ((NAB)) and ANZ ((ANZ)), Newcrest ((NCM)) trying to make amends, Westfield ((WDC)) representing the property trust rally, Wesfarmers ((WES)) providing the consumer staple outlook, QBE ((QBE)) for insurance and Santos ((STO)) for gas.

The very busy week for earnings reports will be followed by an absolute avalanche the following week, and back to third gear for the final week of August. We'll get all that out of the way, and then its central bank time.

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