DIARY: Inflation, US Debt, Results Here, US, Asia, Europe

Another big week here, in the US and Asia.

The coming week here and offshore will be dominated by Australian inflation, Japanese production data, the first estimate of US second quarter economic growth, and the early forecast for the UK economy, not to mention the continuing US second quarter profit season, and the start of the Australian June 30 reporting rush.

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The US debt ceiling will continue to unsettle markets, even if there's some sort of fix for the time being.

In Australia the producer and consumer price inflation data will dominate the coming week (see above story).

Friday sees private sector credit data for June released, as well as the RP Data-Rismark home price index for July.

There will be a lot of talk about interest rates and nervy retailers that will be added to by the release of weak 4th quarter of 2010-11 financial year sales data for Harvey Norman and its very quotable chairman Gerry Harvey who is not expected to remain silent.

Wesfarmers releases 4th quarter and financial year figures for Coles Group and for its coal interests.

Coles is expected to have notched up headline sales around 6% or better for the year, a bit better than Woolies.

The performance of Kmart and Target will be compared with the solid figures from Woolies BW chain last week.

The Harvey Norman figures are due later today; Wesfarmers' figures are out on Thursday.

There's also a speech by RBA Governor Glenn Stevens tomorrow in Sydney and later today, RBA Assistant Governor Malcolm Edey is a panellist at a business conference in Darwin.

Profits for the June 30 reporting season continue to appear with Australian Foundation Investment Co producing figures later today; Alesco Corporation tomorrow (May 31 balance date); GUD Holdings and Austar's first half results on Thursday. Australand also releases interim June 30 figures midweek.

Austar will also be important for management's view of the ACCC's surprise statement on Friday revealing unease with the takeover proposal from Foxtel for the regional Pay TV operator.

Meetings will be dominated by Macquarie Group's AGM on Thursday which is being awaited to see if recent talk of a profit downgrade for the coming year is confirmed by management.

Brisbane-based Campbell Brothers also holds its AGM this week and investors will be looking for comments on the outlook for the 2012 earnings.

Other meetings include Iron Road Ltd, ASQ Financial Group, Kilgore Oil and Gas, Indago Resources, Transit Holdings Ltd, Namoi Cotton Co-operative, NSX Ltd, NewSat Ltd, AusTex Oil, Orica Ltd, Solimar Energy and Gulf Mines.

In Asia, Japanese industrial production is out on Friday and is expected to show another solid month as the recovery from the March 11-generated slump continues.

Also on Friday, Japan will release the consumer-price index for June as well as unemployment, retail sales and household-spending, also for June.

In South Korea, industrial giants Hyundai Motor Co, KIA Motors Corp and LG Electronics will release earnings results early in the week. Samsung releases its figures on Thursday.

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In Japan, Nissan and Sony report quarterly figures,

In India the Reserve Bank meets to discuss interest rates with another increase tipped in some quarters.

In the US, the estimate for June quarter GDP growth is due on Friday night, our time.

The AMP's Dr Shane Oliver said the report "is likely to confirm the economy has lost momentum with annualised growth of just 1.6% expected".

Reuters said in a survey of US economists that the median growth estimate was 2.3%: Marketwatch put its median at 1.9% (which would be unchanged from the first quarter's figure).

The Federal Reserve releases its Beige Book report on the current US economic situation.

That will be closely watched to see if the appearance of slowing conditions in a number of parts of the US has continued.

Comments on the weak employment market will be especially analysed.

Dr Oliver said US consumer confidence (due tomorrow) is expected to show a slight fall, house price data to be flat for June, new home sales to show a modest rise, but pending home sales to fall slightly and durable goods orders for June (due Wednesday) to record a further modest gain.

As well the S&P Case-Schiller home price index for May will be out tomorrow night, our time. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond manufacturing index for July is also due.

June's durable goods orders data is also set for release.

Among companies that are scheduled to release earnings in the week ahead are oil giants Chevron Corp, 3M, UPS, US Steel, Texas Instruments, Dow Chemical, Valero Energy Corp, and the giant Exxon Mobil Corp. Netflix Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp, Ford Motor Co, Boeing, Amazon.com Inc, AOL and resources groups Barrick Gold, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and Consol Energy Inc.

Reuters says S&P 500 Index companies are now expected to increase second quarter earnings by 9.2%

According to Thomson Reuters Research. Earnings would rise 15.2% excluding Bank of America which took a $US8.8 billion loss related to charges from cleaning up its mortgage portfolio.

Around 180 S&P 500 companies are expected to report earnings this week in the US.

In Europe, UK GDP figures are also out this week. The economy grew 0.5% in the first quarter which offset the 0.5% fall in the 4th quarter of last year.

Global Steel giant ArcelorMittal will reveal quarterly earnings results midweek.

It and Peabody Energy of the US are bidding for Macarthur Coal, which releases its quarterly and 2011 financial year production figures during the week.

Banks including deutsche, Credit Suisse and Banco Santander report quarterly results as well.

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