Next Week At A Glance

This punctuated week gave us a 120 plus point rally for the ASX200, ahead of what happens today, with volatility exacerbated by low participation. Life should be back to normal next week following the Easter/Anzac and school holiday disruptions.

This week saw little in the way of corporate reports but that all changes next week as the flood gates open. We had one clanger of an economic data release this week and next week sees a lot more data globally.

In the US, tonight’s GDP result will be critical ahead of releases next week for PCE inflation, consumer confidence, pending home sales and factory orders. The private sector jobs result for April is due on the Wednesday and non-farm payrolls on Friday.

Wednesday is the first of the month, meaning China will release manufacturing and services PMIs on the Tuesday and everyone else manufacturing PMIs on the Wednesday, except in Europe, which has a May Day holiday. Services PMIs then follow on Friday.

The eurozone first estimate of March quarter GDP is out on Tuesday.

The Fed meets next week, with a policy statement due on Wednesday, and the Bank of England meets on Thursday.

China is also closed for May Day and on the Thursday as well.

Locally we’ll see numbers for private sector credit, house prices, building approvals and the PMIs.

Next week brings a flood of resource sector quarterly production reports, and with them a smattering of quarterly updates from other sectors, including sales reports from the supermarkets. There’ll also be a handful of AGMs.

And bank earnings season begins with results from ANZ Bank ((ANZ)), National Bank ((NAB)) and Macquarie Group ((MQG)).

About Greg Peel

Greg Peel joined Macquarie Bank in 1986 and acquired trading experience in equities, currency, fixed income and commodities derivatives, ultimately being appointed director of equity derivatives trading. He later published In With The Smart Money (a plain English guide to the mysterious world of financial markets and derivatives) and acted as a consultant to boutique investment funds. In 2004 Greg joined FNArena as a contributing writer. He is now a director and principal of the company. Greg compliments the journalistic background of the FNArena team with lengthy experience as a financial markets proprietary trader.

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