Next Week At A Glance

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => ((ILU))
            [1] => ((MQG))
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => ILU
            [1] => MQG
        )

)

This story features ILUKA RESOURCES LIMITED, and other companies.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: ILU
The company is included in ASX200, ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

By Greg Peel

Tonight in the US sees the release of the Conference Board leading economic index, the FHFA house price index and the Philly Fed manufacturing index. It will also be one of the busiest sessions on the earnings calendar, with DuPont (Dow), General Electric (Dow), Honeywell, McDonald's (Dow), Morgan Stanley, Newmont, Travelers (Dow) and Verizon (Dow) the highlights.

Tomorrow is Good Friday for all non-Asian markets while Australia, New Zealand, the UK and some parts of Europe (but not the US) have the Monday off and Australia has the Tuesday off. The UK will also have the Friday off next week. Someone or other's getting hitched, apparently.

The US earnings season, which started weakly but hit a real surge this week, will roll on next week. But it will also be an important week for economic data.

The US will see new home sales, pending home sales, the Case-Shiller house price index, consumer confidence, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index, durable goods, The Chicago Fed national activity index, the Chicago PMI, and personal income and expenditure. The US Treasury will auction two, five and seven-year notes.

On the Wednesday, the Fed will make a “rate decision” which will be highly anticipated. Not only will the markets be looking for any news on the fate or otherwise of QE2, Ben Bernanke won't be able to get away with being too coy in his statement. On the conclusion of the FOMC meeting Bernanke will hold his first ever scheduled monetary policy press conference, of which there will be only four per year despite meetings being every six weeks. Hope he puts his pads on.

And of arguably most importance next week will be the release of the first estimate of US first quarter GDP, due on Thursday. The UK will tantalise with its equivalent estimate on the Wednesday. Japan and New Zealand are also expecting rate decisions on the Thursday.

In a short week for Australia, the highlight will be the release of the March quarter CPI on the Wednesday. Monthly private sector credit data follows on the Friday.

Several smaller resource sector stocks will release their quarterly production reports next week, and the one to watch will be a surging Iluka ((ILU)). Macquarie Group ((MQG)) releases its full year profit result on the Friday.

Happy Easter. 

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.

Click to view our Glossary of Financial Terms