The Week Ahead: FOMC And Australia Day

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

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck

Next week will be one of the more unusual with some 180,000 Australians expected to "take a sickie" on Monday in between the weekend and Australia Day celebrations on Tuesday. It's probably a fair assumption that some of those Australians work inside the financial industry. Expect thin volumes on the day, which means anything is possible on that day.

On Wednesday the FOMC meets, but what exactly are the chances for a genuine surprise? The same can be said of RBNZ and BOJ meetings on Thursday and Friday respectively. Financial markets are more than ever watching every move from central bankers, with currencies the most likely battleground between bears and bulls, optimists and pessimists, lions and sheep.

Friday will also see the release of the final estimate for US GDP growth in the December quarter while the US Q4 reporting season rolls on.

Locally, we will see December quarter production reports being released by mining and energy companies. Fortescue ((FMG)) is scheduled for Thursday and Origin Energy ((ORG)) the next day. There are AGMs and EGMs, including from National Australia Bank ((NAB)) and Orica ((ORI)) plus the February reporting season tentatively starts on Wednesday when GUD Holdings ((GUD)) releases its interim financials. Credit Corp ((CCP)) is scheduled to follow the next day.

In the meantime, global equities seem of the intent to quickly remove the oversold readings that have dominated the first two weeks of the new calendar year. How long can/will it last? We will probably find out next week.

Greg Peel will be back after Australia Day to resume writing Australia's best Overnight Report. We wish you all a good weekend and an excellent Australia Day. FNArena will be ramping up its service to full speed once we've dealt with the hangover post Australia Day. We'll be curious how much research exactly will be available for our Australian Broker Call Reports on Monday and Wednesday morning.

For all economic data release dates, AGM dates and times and other relevant information, please refer to the FNArena Calendar.

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