FYI | Feb 19 2007
By Greg Peel
We should slip quietly into the new week as US markets on Friday reflected the fact that everyone squared up and left at lunchtime ahead of tonight’s Presidents’ Day holiday. Nevertheless, it’s a big week in Australia for economic indication with wages the focus.
We kick off on Tuesday with the latest ABARE crop report.
On Wednesday RBA governor Glenn Stevens testifies to parliament, much in the same way the Fed chairman testified to Congress last week. This will largely be an official delivery of the RBA’s Statement of Monetary Policy released last week, and there should be few surprises.
Also on Wednesday is the release of the all-important fourth quarter wage price index, which occurs after Stevens has said his bit. Wage inflation is what the RBA remains particularly wary of, as it represents prices at the input level for all activity, as opposed to retail inflation anomalies such as banana prices. Market consensus is for an increase of 1.0%, which takes into account the introduction of the new award levels in the period.
Wednesday also sees December skilled job vacancies, January car sales, and the release of the Westpac-Melbourne Institute indicator of economic activity. On Thursday we have average weekly wages for the November quarter.
The US releases its January CPI on Wednesday, in what is otherwise a very quiet week for indicators.
New Zealand will see a week of official gloating. Don’t meanshun the crucket.
It’s a heady week of interim and final results releases for Australian stocks. A full list appears in FNArena’s Financial Calendar.