Next Week At A Glance

This story features WESFARMERS LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: 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.

By Greg Peel

March quarter GDPs will be in focus next week as we first see the UK’s result on the Monday and then the US result on the Wednesday. Bear in mind the US result in particular is very prone to significant revisions in subsequent months.

The US GDP will nevertheless bring Fed policy sharply back in focus and it so happens the Fed’s next policy meeting is also on Wednesday. The Fed’s data-dependence will be tested tonight with durable goods and next week with house prices, consumer confidence, the Richmond Fed index, pending home sales, personal income & spending, construction spending and the April manufacturing PMI.

Friday is the first of May which means manufacturing PMIs from Australia, Japan, China and the UK as well, although being May Day we won’t see a eurozone PMI just yet as major markets will be closed. China is also closed, hence the HSBC number will also follow later.

The impact of ECB QE should begin to be seen in next week’s inflation estimate and industrial production and retail sales numbers. Japan’s manufacturing sector appears to have slipped into contraction for the first time in almost a year, so it will be interesting to see whether the Bank of Japan is still happy to sit on its hands when it meets on Thursday.

Australia will also be focused on monetary policy next week as we have a speech from Glenn Stevens, private sector credit and the March quarter PPI numbers, as well as the manufacturing PMI.

A busy week on the local stock front will include more resource sector production reports, a handful of quarterly updates from non-resource companies, including Wesfarmers’ ((WES)) sales result, interim earnings from BT Asset Management ((BTT)) and a handful of AGMs including that of Santos ((STO)).
 

Find out why FNArena subscribers like the service so much: "Your Feedback (Thank You)" – Warning this story contains unashamedly positive feedback on the service provided.

Click to view our Glossary of Financial Terms