For Australian investors, the coming week will be dominated by Australian banks with three of the biggest reporting. Offshore there’s the US Federal Reserve meeting mid-week and then late in the week, the start of the usual monthly updates on the health of manufacturing in the world’s major economies.
In the corporate arena offshore, quarterly reports from tech giants such as Apple and Facebook will dominate, along with reports from energy majors such as BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron.
In Australia, the bank profit reports will be top of the list for investors large and small.
They will follow a couple of weeks of very strong sharemarket rises for the banks with the Commonwealth and ANZ hitting new all time highs, while Westpac is close to its all time high and the NAB has seen a succession of five year highs.
The ANZ and NAB both reveal their full results for the year to September 30.
The ANZ is out tomorrow, the NAB on Thursday and Macquarie’s September 30 interim is out on Friday.
Investors are looking for higher dividends from the big two while Macquarie’s result will be watched to see if the upturn in markets in recent months has improved the prospects for the rest of the year.
Elsewhere in Australia, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens opens an investment conference in Sydney tomorrow and his remarks will be watched closely for any clues regarding the interest rate outlook.
Given the confidence Deputy Governor Philip Lowe expressed late last week in the economic outlook, it’s unlikely that Mr Stevens will say anything but confirm that the bank is comfortable with current interest rate settings – that’s if he offers any comments on current economic conditions.
He will probably mention that he wouldn’t mind seeing the dollar lower than the closing level on Friday of 95.81 US cents.
He didn’t talk about the domestic outlook in remarks last week at the opening of an Australia-Britain investment conference, but did elaborate in the following question and answer session, as did Mr Lowe after his speech last Thursday.
Economic data this week includes new home sales and building approvals and private sector lending for September.
As well there’s the monthly survey of manufacturing, and figures on producer price inflation for the September quarter.
And there’s also the monthly look at house prices from RP Data/Rismark and another from Australian Property Monitors.
In the corporate area we have the trio of bank profit reports, as well as quarterly sales reports from David Jones and Woolworths.
There are quarterly reports from Beach Energy and Drillsearch and GPT Group releases its third quarter report and strategy update
The annual meeting season continues with AGMs from companies such as Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Dexus, UGL, Stockland, JB Hi-Fi, Insurance Australia Group, GWA, Transpacific, Crown Limited, Boral, Tabcorp, Perpetual, Hills Holdings, Federation Centres,Tatts and Flight Centre.
And the privatising Kiwi energy company, Meridian, is due to list on the Australian and NZ stockmarkets tomorrow.
In Asia there’s the surveys of manufacturing for all major economies from HSBC/Markit, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and more.
China also sees a second survey result released by the government. That is usually released around the first of each month.
Both will impact sentiment in markets in Asia and especially Australia and the value of the dollar.
In Japan there’s September’s retail sales, industrial production and employment data out Tuesday and Wednesday. The Bank of Japan meets on Thursday and will release its monetary policy decision.
And, the Reserve Bank of India announces their latest monetary policy decision. No change in rates is expected.
In Europe the usual start of month reports on manufacturing are out on Friday night, our time.
As well, there’s the preliminary estimate of third quarter GDP published in Spain, German unemployment as well as sentiment indicators for the eurozone.
Consumer confidence data are published in both Germany and France. Mortgage approvals, consumer credit and money supply data are out in the UK.
Both Germany and the UK see also see the release of consumer confidence indicators. Consumer spending and producer prices figures are released in France, followed by Spanish current account numbers.
A number of companies across the region release earnings reports, most interest will be in Nokia’s quarterly.
The once mighty phone giant could be making its last quarterly report before being taken over by Microsoft (which last week produced a solid quarterly report and saw its shares jump by more than 6% on Friday). BP and Shell also report in Europe and the US.
In the US, the Fed meets for two days this week with the decision out early Thursday morning, our time.
The Fed is not expected to make any changes to its quantitative easing program in view of softer recent economic data and the uncertainty caused by the shutdown/debt ceiling impasse.
Friday night, our time sees the release of the monthly manufacturing survey from the Institute of Supply Management.
Data will also be released for industrial production for September and pending home sales (both tonight), producer price inflation, retail sales, house prices and consumer confidence (all tomorrow) and consumer price inflation (Wednesday). Car sales for October are out Friday night, our time.
The US earnings reporting season for the September quarter will continue.
Reuters says consensus expectations have increased to around 2.5% growth year on year, "but profit growth is ultimately likely to come in around 4 to 5%."
More than 120 of the Standard & Poor’s 500 companies will report their third-quarter earnings this week, among them majors such as General Motors, and energy giants, Exxon, Chevron and Valero (and Shell and BP in Europe). Credit card giant, Visa also reports.
But most attention will be on the quarterly reports from Apple (tonight, our time) and Facebook on Wednesday night.
