Next Week At A Glance

This story features COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: CBA

By Greg Peel

With QE2 now a done deal attention has returned to Europe and its debt problems. It's not that Europe's debt problems have suddenly resurfaced, it's just that the world has been distracted for a few months waiting for QE2 and selling down the US dollar. Now we have the US dollar bouncing again as the euro falls and PIIGS sovereign debt spreads blow out once more.

Into this environment the EU, and specifically the eurozone, will tonight provide a first estimate of third quarter GDP. Next week in Europe will also see important releases in the form of trade balance, inflation and the ZEW sentiment index.

It's also inflation week in the US next week and it's inflation, or lack thereof, that QE2 is specifically targeting. As well as the monthly PPI and CPI, next week will see business inventories, industrial production, housing starts, housing sentiment, leading indicators and the manufacturing indices of New York and Philadelphia.

There's a remote chance something meaningful might come out of the G20 meeting tonight or over the weekend, but it's only remote.

Next week in Australia sees little in the way of economic data with vehicle sales, Westpac's leading index and the quarterly wage cost index the highlights. But we'll also learn what on earth the RBA was thinking in raising rates via the release of that meetings' minutes on Tuesday.

Speaking of banks, next week will also see a trading update from Commonwealth ((CBA)) to wrap the banking outlook for the time being while Incitec Pivot ((IPL)) will report full-year earnings and James Hardie ((JHX)) its interim. The week will also be filled with a few million AGMs. 

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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