THE MAIN focus this week will be on consumer spending, with official retail sales data for January due to be released on Friday.
Economists expect these figures to be extremely weak as data has shown that car sales in January were two-thirds lower than in the same month a year earlier.
Meanwhile, markets will be watching closely to see if the pick-up in investor sentiment generated by the strong performance by equity markets last week can be maintained.
Monday
Results:American Apparel; Brixton; Datalex; Forth Ports; Readymix.
Meetings:Fifth World Water Forum (Istanbul).
Indicators:EU final HICP (February); US NY Fed – Empire State index (March), TICS capital inflows (January), capacity utilisation industrial production (February) and NAHB housing market index (March); UK Rightmove house prices (March); Italian final CPI (February); Japanese tertiary index (January).
Others:ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet to speak at the CFs presidential lecture, "Europe – Cultural Identity/Cultural Diversity" (Frankfurt).
Tuesday
St Patrick’s Day holiday.
Results:Adobe Systems; Escada; Friends Provident; Guess; SIG; Weinerberger.
Indicators:US housing starts (February) and PPI (February); German ZEW Index (March).
Wednesday
Results:Benetton; BMW; French Connection; Nike; Oracle.
Meetings:"Economic Development and Cost Saving through Green Chemistry" talk by Dr John Warner and Dr Amy Cannon (Science Gallery, TCD).
Indicators:US CPI (February), real earnings (February), current account balance (Q4) and FOMC interest rate announcement; UK average earnings (three months to January) and claimant count unemployment (February); Italian industrial production (January).
Thursday
Results:3Com; Aegis; Arena Leisure; Barnes and Noble; Cape; Blockbuster; FedEx; Heidelberg Cement; Premier Farnell; Prudential; T Clarke.
Meetings:"Building Corporate Reputations – Helping Firms Build their Greatest Asset" business briefing (Dublin Chamber); Redundancy seminar (Guinness Storehouse); EU high-level event on ICT for energy efficiency (Brussels); Thomas Cook agm.
Indicators:EU industrial production (January); Irish w/sale price index (February), vital statistics (Q2) and overseas travel (January); US initial jobless claims (w/e March 14th), leading indicators (February) and Philly Fed business survey (March); UK PSNCR (February) and CBI industrial orders (March); Bank of Japan interest rate announcement, monthly report.
Friday
Japanese market holiday – vernal equinox.
Results:Regus; Stanley Gibbons indicators: EU current account balance (January); Irish retail sales index (January) and planning permissions (Q4); German PPI (February); Italian unemployment (Q4).
