A shortened trading week in Europe, Australia and parts of Asia, but that won’t change the emphasis at the start of a new month and quarter on US jobs data for March.
There’s also the usual start of month surveys of manufacturing and services activity across leading economies, as well as data on house prices, trade and building approvals for Australia.
The US first quarter earnings season doesn’t start until late next week, with Friday 12 April the big day. There's a trio of major banks reporting, but that’s after the US jobs data this week and then the March consumer inflation data the week after.
This week’s focus will be on jobs data (Friday) which is expected to show a solid but slower 200,000 to 215,000 rise in payroll numbers, a steady unemployment figure at 3.9% and average hourly earnings growth remaining around 4.3% yoy.
In Europe, March inflation data this week is forecast to come in around 2.6% yoy, with core inflation falling to 3% yoy. February unemployment is expected to be unchanged at around 6.4% yoy (both due Wednesday).
In Australia, the minutes from the RBA’s last meeting later today will be watched closely for more detail around its move to a neutral bias on interest rates.
So far as economic data releases are concerned, there’s the March Core Logic home price figures due out Tuesday morning, building approvals (Thursday) to bounce 2% after falls in the prior months, and the trade surplus for February on Friday to fall back to $10.5 billion.
