Originally published by Rivkin Securities
Earnings in the US, a meeting of the European Central Bank and first estimates of US and UK first quarter economic growth will dominate markets offshore, but in Australia the big news this week will be the March quarter consumer and producer price and export price data releases. In Australia, expectations are for headline and “underlying” measures of inflation to rise by 0.5% in the March quarter (to be up 2% over the year) which is at the bottom of the RBA’s target range. Furthermore, the consensus is that there will not be enough in the numbers to change the RBA’s current ‘sit and watch’ policy stance.
As far as the US is concerned, US house price data, consumer confidence, durable goods and new home sales will be issued this week, but the major data release will be the first estimate of US GDP for the three months to March. That’s out on Friday night so we won’t see the reaction to that until next Monday morning.
The US Dollar Index rose to a two-week high against a basket of peer currencies, while the Aussie dollar eased a cent to end around 76.72 US cents. Thanks to the 4% slide in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares on Friday and smaller falls for its peers, the technology index was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 (dropping 1.5%), registering three straight days of losses ahead of the key earnings week for the sector. As a result, Wall Street’s three major indexes fell on Friday.
Data Releases:
- No Significant Data