Next Week At A Glance

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

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.

By Greg Peel

If the protagonists in the US Cliff discussions have no other incentive to reach a resolution, it is to be able to enjoy a Christmas break. Hence while many in the market are confident an agreement could be reached before year-end, others suggest the incentive to not be stuck in Washington from Christmas to New Year is enough to encourage pre-Christmas success. Unfortunately Christmas is still over a fortnight away, meaning next week will likely be another in which much rhetoric is spouted but little overt progress is made. 

Oh joy.

While the monthly US jobs number is arguably the most important monthly data point of all, tonight's release comes in Cliff's shadow and hence may or may not provide appropriate impact. The number will also be Sandy-affected, meaning a low result will not be so much of a cause for alarm. 

Next week brings further important data for the US, with Black Friday-encompassing November retails sales data a highlight along with industrial production, inventory and trade data. On Wednesday night the Fed will issue a monetary policy statement and provide a quarterly update of economic forecasts, after which Ben Bernanke will hold a quarterly press conference. While little in the way of policy change is expected, Wall Street is waiting to learn of the Fed's plan for Operation Twist, which expires at year-end. The timing is somewhat unfortunate given it will be Cliff's big day, but the Fed will supposedly need to announce whether Twist will be allowed to expire or, extended, or replaced with straight-out bond buying – QE4.

It's a quieter economic week in Australia next week with the highlights being the NAB business and Westpac consumer confidence surveys – the latter of particular interest as we head into the seasonal spend-frenzy.

There will be another trickle of AGMs, with Bank of Queensland ((BOQ)) a highlight.

Before we get there, however, we'll be in high anticipation of China's November data dump this weekend. Inflation, retail sales, industrial production and investment numbers will be released.

As for Europe next week, well, anything may or may not happen.
 

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