Next Week At A Glance

This story features BANK OF QUEENSLAND LIMITED. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: BOQ

By Greg Peel

Tonight in the US sees wholesale inventories and sales data which will help answer the ongoing question of whether the US is in a solid restocking phase adding to GDP growth. Inventories are a two-edged sword nevertheless, given overstocking without consumer demand leads to discounting and deflation.

On Monday night in the US the balloon goes up on the March quarter earnings season, given tradition dictates the Alcoa result is first off the rank. Thereafter begins a protracted period extending into May as analysts tear apart the 500 results of the S&P and assess ongoing guidance. Wall Street is currently well-priced for a very good season.

And remember – it's not the result that counts, it's how that result compares to expectation.

It's then a busy week in the US economic calendar with the Treasury's monthly budget and the trade balance early on. A busy Wednesday sees the CPI, retail sales, business inventories and the Fed Beige Book which anecdotally assesses economic health. A packed Thursday brings industrial production, long term capital flows, the housing market sentiment index, and both the New York and Philadelphia manufacturing indices. Friday it's housing starts and the first Michigan Uni consumer confidence measure for the month.

Thursday is also the big day on the Chinese economic calendar, with the release of monthly inflation, industrial production, retails sales and investment data. Most importantly, China will release its first quarter GDP.

It's a little less frantic in Australia next week, kicking off with housing and credit card finance on Monday. Thereafter we have total lending finance, along with NAB's business conditions and confidence measure and Westpac's consumer confidence and inflation expectation measures.

On the local corporate front, we're still seeing a trickle of ex-divs but we're also now into AGM season and next week signals the start of the resource sector's quarterly production report season as well. Bank of Queensland ((BOQ)) reports its half-year 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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