FYI | Feb 26 2007
By Greg Peel
This week sees another madhouse of company results which will keep analysts burning the midnight oil. Thankfully things begin to settle down next week. For all reporting dates please refer to the FNArena calendar.
On the economic front, we begin a two week period of a lot of Australian data, starting with January new home sales on Tuesday.
Wednesday sees January private sector credit and fourth quarter construction work done while Thursday brings us fourth quarter capex and the Australian Industry Group/PricewaterhouseCoopers performance of manufacturing index for February. Friday provides January retail trade and the fourth quarter balance of payments.
The Kiwis will have their eyes on the January trade balance and February business confidence today.
It’s also a busy week in the US, starting on Tuesday with durable goods orders and existing home sales for January, and consumer confidence and the Richmond Fed survey for February.
Wednesday will reveal new home sales and personal income and spending for January, along with the Chicago performance of manufacturing index for February and the all-important fourth quarter GDP. Thursday sees the ISM manufacturing index.
Wednesday further provides the Eurozone’s CPI and Friday the Japanese CPI for January.
The Dow ended last week on a slight down, and the focus this week will be on whether US consumer data supports a strong stock market. The SPI overnight (weekend) closed unchanged providing little direction, but metal prices were once again strong on Friday with nickel (up 4%) and zinc (up 3%) sticking nicely to the script while aluminium (up 2%) surprised. Gold has pushed through the US$680/oz barrier while silver continues its strong surge after breaking the US$14/oz level last week.
Watch this space as a growing number of experts and market watchers is predicting a strong come back for everything material, including precious metals, this week. The precious metals in particular received a few strong recommendations on Friday and over the weekend, including from US based trading guru Dennis Gartman.