Next Week At A Glance

This story features MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: MYR

By Greg Peel

Tonight sees the release of the monthly US unemployment figures, made a bit of a lottery given the negative effects of heavy snow in February offset by census-related temporary hiring.

It's a quieter week next week on the US economic front, with inventories and the monthly trade balance the main features, along with a fortnightly Michigan Uni consumer confidence reading on the Friday. Friday also brings the important US retail sales number.

Of more interest in the US will be the latest round of Treasury bond issuance. This time another US$74bn of three-, ten-, and thirty-year bonds are up for grabs for those who still think the US deficit is a great long term investment. While shorter term Treasury debt is still well bid as a safe haven, the risk of inflation is beginning to weigh on longer dated demand. Foreign central bank interest has been falling alarmingly of late.

Its a busier week in Australia with Thursday's release of unemployment numbers the highlight. Bank economists will be busy with the release of ANZ's job ad numbers and NAB's business sentiment index on Tuesday, and Westpac's consumer confidence numbers on Wednesday. January home loan numbers will also be of interest to the RBA.

It's time for some more monthly Chinese economic data next week, with Thursday down for the release of inflation, sales, investment and industrial production numbers. The releases will be closely watched given recent moves by Chinese authorities to slow economic growth ahead of inflation fears.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will make a rate decision on Thursday.

On the local stock front, there is another round of stocks going ex-dividend next week. Myer ((MYR)) will provide a quarterly sales update on Thursday.

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.

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