Weekly Reports | Mar 28 2013
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
Tonight in the US will see end of quarter trading. Will we see a last ditch effort to push the S&P 500 to a new high, or will it be a case of locking in profits after what’s been quite an extraordinary quarter? Speaking of quarters, the last revision of the US December GDP be will be made tonight.
Tomorrow is a holiday across the Western world, albeit banks are open in the US and personal income and spending data will be released along with consumer sentiment. Japan will take the opportunity to sneak through somewhat of a “data dump” of unemployment, production and manufacturing numbers.
Come Monday, only Australia, New Zealand and the UK are closed while Wall Street will be open as usual. It is the first of the month so the monthly manufacturing PMI numbers are due – perhaps a foolish pursuit in April. PMIs for China, the eurozone and US will be released on Friday while Australia and the UK will report on Tuesday. The corresponding service sector PMIs are equivalently split across Tuesday and Wednesday.
It will be a busy week for central banks. Everyone has given up on a rate cut from the RBA on Tuesday while in contrast, the Bank of Japan meeting on Thursday will be the first under the new chief and a QE pump-up is expected. Will the Bank of England follow suit later that night? Many are expecting a QE extension sooner rather than later. The ECB will also meet and a rate cut is a possibility, but not a given. No doubt what happens in Cyprus tonight and perhaps across the rest of Club Med will be closely watched by the eurozone’s central bank.
It will be a jobs week in the US, which is the Fed’s central focus. The private sector number is out on Wednesday and non-farm payrolls on Thursday. The US will also see construction spending, vehicle sales, factory orders and trade balance data across the week.
Aside from manufacturing and service PMIs, Australia will see building approvals, retail sales and its own trade balance data.
As for today’s trade, it is the end of the quarter but the tumbleweeds will be rolling down Bridge Street after lunch.
Happy Easter.
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