Daily FNArena News - FYI

Will Australia get another rate rise on Tuesday?

ANZ Bank’s latest report into the Australian commerical property market shows confidence levels remain high despite the global financial crisis.

The BoE will provide a huge liquidity facility to troubled UK banks under a veil of secrecy.

The Fed makes its rate decision on Wednesday night amidst a wealth of US data and not much for Australia.

State Street Global Markets has released its Investor Confidence Index report for April and it shows a fall back to February levels, indicating a continued lack of confidence in the market outlook.

It’s CPI time in Australia, but unless the number is extraordinarily high consensus still has the RBA on hold in May.

While 2008 has had a rough start for equity investors Credit Suisse suggests a number of themes it sees as useful guides for investors chasing better returns in the months ahead.

No weekly musings from your editor this week.

..but the finance ministers are concerned about US dollar volatility, and are expecting the world economic slowdown to worsen.

Falling house prices and interest rates mean US housing affordability has improved significantly in recent months but Westpac suggests a turnaround in sentiment remains the key.