Next Week At A Glance

This story features ILUKA RESOURCES LIMITED. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: ILU

By Greg Peel

I suggested this time last week that volatility had returned to the market following the big commodity sell-off but that there was no real sign of panic. The market needed to find a level at which to settle down after the correction. Well this week has also been fairly volatile but the ASX 200 is about 90 points higher, albeit most of that came yesterday.

The US is now posting pretty weak economic data and there are more releases to consider next week. We'll see the Chicago Fed national activity index, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index, new home sales, pending home sales, the FHFA house price index, durable goods, personal income and expenditure and the fortnightly Michigan Uni consumer sentiment index.

On Thursday, the first revision to the US first quarter GDP result will be made. Over the week the US Treasury will auction two, five and seven-year notes.

Australia is fairly devoid of economic data next week outside of the Westpac leading index on Wednesday. The exception is the release of the important first quarter capital expenditure data on Thursday which, along with this week's first quarter wage cost index, is providing a countdown to the release of the March quarter GDP result on Wednesday week. Next week we'll have quarterly data for sales, profits, inventories, exports and the current account, all of which will feed into hasty re-estimations of GDP from economists. The data will also impact on RBA deliberations.

There's another great swathe of local AGMs next week but once again the majors are few and far between. Iluka ((ILU)) and Westfield ((WDC)) are two exceptions.

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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