Next Week At A Glance

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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

China is now closed until next Friday for the New Year’s break but that does not stop the data flow, beginning on Sunday with Beijing’s official manufacturing PMI for January followed by the service sector PMI on Monday.

We then move into what is a very big week for data and corporate earnings.

The earnings season will continue in the US and while we’ve had a late burst this week of slightly better results, Wall Street remains relatively underwhelmed to date. With the Fed now in full tapering mode there will nevertheless be close scrutiny of economic data releases, and next week will provide plenty to chew over.

There is a global round of manufacturing PMIs on Monday with Australia, the eurozone, the UK and US all reporting, followed by the service sector round on Wednesday which will also see HSBC chime in with its China number.

Across the week the US will also see construction spending, vehicle sales, factory orders, chain store sales and the trade balance, with private sector jobs numbers on Wednesday and the January non-farm payrolls release on Friday. This number will need to be good to confirm December’s shock was just a blip.

The ECB and Bank of England will both hold policy meetings on Thursday following the RBA’s meeting on Tuesday which is expected to produce no rate change. The RBA will release its first quarter Statement on Monetary Policy on Friday.

Australian data releases next week include the manufacturing, service and construction PMIs along with job ads, building approvals, retail sales and the trade balance.

Focus in Australia will also shift to the local reporting season in which earnings growth needs to be seen in order to justify elevated price/earnings ratios. Look out for some big movers as the surprises and disappointments play out. It’s first gear next week before things really start to hot up, with Downer EDI ((DOW)), REA Group ((REA)), Tabcorp ((TAH)) and Cochlear ((COH)) among the highlights.
 

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