FYI | Apr 10 2007
By Greg Peel
While it is clear that inflation remains the RBA’s greatest concern, the fact that rates were left unchanged this month suggest the RBA is looking at deeper overall inflationary trends in the economy over more time rather than simply reacting to month-on month data. Nor would the CPI result alone potentially be enough to force a change.
To that end, this week’s data will contribute to an appraisal of the current trend.
Today we see the AiG performance of construction index, the NAB business survey, and ANZ job ads for March. The important housing finance figure for February is released on Wednesday.
The week wraps up on Thursday with the essential employment/unemployment data for March.
Focus in the US will be on the release of the minutes of the Fed meeting on Wednesday which left rates unchanged recently. Thursday sees import/export prices and the monthly budget statement but the big day will be Friday, providing the February trade balance and the March producer price index (PPI) which will provide some clues about inflation.
It’s a big day in Japan today with the release of current account and trade balance data as well as a rates decision from the Bank of Japan. The European Central Bank makes its rates decision on Thursday.
It will likely be a quiet start to post Easter trading on the local bourse. The Dow rose 30 points on Thursday and a mere 8 in thin trading yesterday. Two trading days have seen mixed results in base metals, while gold has followed down oil to be around the US$670/oz mark after pushing up towards US$678/oz in earlier trade.
Two days have seen the Nymex oil price fall 4% to US$61.69/bbl. The US is however advocating the stepping up of sanctions against Iran as the Iranian president announces success in reaching the level of industrial enrichment of uranium.