Next Week At A Glance

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By Greg Peel

One sovereign debt issue down, one sovereign debt issue to go. The US debt ceiling wrangle still looks like lasting to the eleventh hour but the wider than expected package of relief in Europe detailed last night should take markets into next week in a slightly more confident mood. And if France and Germany can agree on something, surely the Democrats and Republicans can to.

The US Treasury will be auctioning US$99bn of two, five and seven year notes next week which might be interesting in the context. Last week's round of auctions was well received but at that stage Europe was on its knees. Is the world prepared to pay up for paper that may be in default in a week?

On the US economic front, the week will culminate on Friday with the first estimate of June quarter GDP. Ahead of that number we'll see the Chicago national activity index, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index, the Fed Beige Book, new and pending home sales, durable goods, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI.

US earnings season will roll on with another busy week, but not before tonight's important bellwether release from General Electric.

In Australia, next week is crunch time for the RBA. The central bank has indicated the next policy move will depend entirely on Wednesday's June quarter CPI result, and at this stage the bias is still to the hawkish side despite Westpac's assumptions otherwise. RBA chairman Glenn Stevens is due to speak on Tuesday ahead of the release, although Monday brings a precursor in the form of the PPI.

Next week sees a continuation of the Australian resource sector quarterly production reports, but they will be sharing the stage with the very first trickle of full-year earnings reports from the broad market. Our result season begins in earnest in August but really hots up in the last two weeks before September. Next week also sees a quarterly sales report from Coles ((WES)). 

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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