The Economic Week Ahead

Main Macro Events This Week

There’s a lot on this week’s calendar to be digested, including a mass of earnings, heavy Treasury supply, and important data releases. There’s a lot of data, and especially sentiment numbers, that support healthy economic growth ahead. Fiscal stimulus should also be very supportive, not to mention rising global growth (remember the IMF forecasts growth at 3.9% for this year and next). There are a couple of important caveats to that outlook, however. One is the maturity of the U.S. expansion (106 months). It’s getting quite long in the tooth and next month will be the second longest on record, beating the boom in the 1960s. And if it survives until next year, it will become the longest expansion on record. And while we don’t expect a trade war, it is a risk.

United States:  Earnings will be the focal point most of the week as all sectors of the S&P will be well represented from key companies. With almost one-fifth of the S&P having reported, 79% have beaten estimates. As for supply, there’s over $230 bln in bills and short dated coupons on tap. And for data, it’s the Advance Q1 GDP and ECI (both Friday) that will take top billing, but there’s also a number of housing, manufacturing, and confidence reports. Consumer confidence (Tuesday) likely declined to 126.0 in April, from March’s 127.7. As for Michigan sentiment (Friday), a final April reading of 98.0 is expected, little-changed from the preliminary. Though expected to slip in April, both sentiment indicators remain at lofty levels. Confidence reached a 17-year high of 130.0 in February and the Michigan March reading was at a 14-year high. Durable goods orders (Thursday) are forecast rising 1.5% in March  on top of the 3.0% jump in February, with shipments and inventories also expected to be up strongly at 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively. March existing home sales (Monday) should rise 0.7% to a 5.580 mln rate, following a strong 3.0% gain in February to 5.540 mln. New home sales (Tuesday) are also expected to rise to 0.630 mln in April from 0.618 mln in February.

Canada: The week in Canada begins with an appearance by Governor Poloz and Senior Deputy Governor Wilkins in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (Monday). The opening statement will be available on the BoC’s site at 15:30 ET. As always, central bank enthusiast can listen in on the Parliament of Canada’s website. The Parliament appearance will presumably reiterate the outlook presented in the announcement and MPR. Poloz and Wilkins appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce on Wednesday.

As for data, wholesale shipment values (Monday) are expected to improve 0.5% in February after the 0.1% gain in January. The report is the final input in the monthly GDP projection, tracking a 0.2% gain in February GDP (m/m, sa) after the 0.1% drop in January. An estimate for real Q1 GDP is for a 1.5% gain (q/q, saar) after the 1.7% increase in Q4, which would be just above the BoC’s 1.3% Q1 estimate from the April MPR and hence have little impact on the near term policy outlook. February average weekly earnings (Thursday) are seen rising 0.1% (m/m, sa) after the 0.2% increase in January. The Bank was constructive on wage growth last week, observing that the continued pick-up is “as expected, even factoring out recent minimum wage increases in Ontario and Alberta.” The April CFIB sentiment indicator will be released on Thursday.

Europe: The focus this week is on the ECB meeting, which is widely expected to keep rates and guidance unchanged at the April meeting amid ongoing volatility on markets and lingering trade and geopolitical concerns. Draghi will likely sound pretty much like Praet on April 17: Optimistic on growth and the medium term inflation outlook but not convinced yet that inflation developments have met criteria for sustained adjustment. So the message remains for now that an ample degree of stimulus remains necessary and the ECB must be “patient, persistent and prudent”.

It also a bumper weak on the data front, with PMI, IFO and ESI Economic Confidence taking centre stage. France and Spain are the first major Eurozone countries to release Q1 GDP numbers and Spain will publish the first preliminary inflation reading for April. So plenty of relevant data, most of which is likely to be bond friendly, but unlikely to solve the question whether the current warning signals in indicators are due to one off factors, or the first sign of a broader and quicker slowdown in growth momentum. The long and harsh winter, coupled with widespread flue outbreaks and unusually large numbers of sick days as well as the earlier timing of Easter this year, has left its mark on data through Q1 and likely to also still have an impact on April figures.

Preliminary PMI readings (Tuesday) are seen falling across the board, but expected to still point to a robust pace of expansion in manufacturing and services sectors. The German Ifo business confidence indicator (Tuesday) comes in a new format this month as the institute has changed the base care tweaked the methodology and also included the services sector now, which so far has been reported separately. This makes forecasts and comparisons more tricky, although the Ifo institute has provided a backward time series. For the new indicator,  a dip is expected to 102.8 from 103.2, and a decline in the expectations reading to 99.6 from 100.1 in the previous month. Finally Eurozone ESI economic confidence (Friday) is seen falling to 112.2 from 112.6 in March, with both services and manufacturing confidence expected to decline further. Data may be showing first signs of a slowdown, but the labor market is a lagging indicator and we expect a renewed decline in the German jobless number (Friday) of -5K in April, with the unemployment rate likely to hold at a record low of 5.3%.

UK: The calendar this week brings the CBI trends surveys, consumer confidence and the first estimate for Q1 GDP, along with monthly government borrowing figures. The April CBI industrial trends survey (Tuesday) expected to come in with a +4 reading in the total orders headline, while the CBI’s distributive sales survey for the same month (Thursday) should post an improvement to a -2 reading in the headline realized sales figure after -8 in the month prior. The April Gfk consumer confidence (also Thursday)  anticipated at -7 , which would be unchanged from the previous month. As for GDP (Friday),  growth rates expected at 0.3% q/q and 1.4% after respective Q4 figures of 0.4% q/q and 1.4% y/y.

Japan: The BoJ meets (Thursday, Friday) and no policy changes are expected. This meeting will be the first for the two new deputy governors, Masayoshi Amamiya and Masazumi Wakatabe, and it will be interesting to ascertain their leanings. The March services PPI (Tuesday) is seen rising to a 0.7% y/y clip from 0.6%. The remaining releases are all due Friday. The February all-industry index is forecast bouncing 1.0% after the -1.8% drop in January. March unemployment rate is seen steady at 2.5%, while the job offers/seekers ratio should stay unchanged at 1.58. March industrial production is penciled in at 1.0% y/y from the prior unchanged reading. March retail sales are expected to post a 1.6% y/y clip, slightly down from the previous 1.7% increase. March housing starts and construction orders are also due.

Australia: The Q1 CPI (Tuesday) is expected to rise 0.6% (q/q, sa) after the matching 0.6% gain in Q4. The CPI is projected to expand at a 2.0% y/y pace in Q1 from the 1.9% y/y growth rate in Q4. Trade prices are due Thursday, with the export price index expected to rise to a 4.0% pace in Q1 (q/q, sa) after the 2.8% rise in Q4. The import price index is anticipated at 1.0% in Q1, half of the 2.0% rate in Q4. The Q1 PPI is due Friday. Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Kent (Financial Markets) speaks Tuesday at the Housing Industry Association (HIA) Breakfast in Sydney on “The limits of Interest-Only Lending.” Next week brings the RBA’s meeting.

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