Economic Calendar and News

These are the major items on this week’s agenda:

• The Reserve Bank of Australia will meet for the second time this year on Tuesday, and traders will be looking for clues on how comfortable the central bank is with its monetary policy setting amid signs of sticky inflation overseas.

• Australian jobs figures are also on the horizon, due Thursday. Last time around the jobless rate jumped to 4.1%. According to Trading Economics, the consensus forecast is for the unemployment rate to moderate a fraction to 4%, courtesy of an expected 30,000-40,000 new hires across the economy last month.

• Outside of the RBA, there are central bank meetings abroad to watch. The US Federal Reserve convenes on Thursday to decide interest rates, but more importantly, it will also issue updated forecasts. The Bank of Japan will also meet, where observers will be watching for any shift from its negative interest rates policy.

Shares on Watch

Some of the potential shares in focus this week include:

• Iron ore prices enter the new trading week at a seven-month low, below US$100 per tonne. That corresponds with a year-to-date decline of over 26%. One of the key drivers behind the decline has been lower steel production out of China, and higher inventory build-up at major Chinese mills. These developments could renew attention on shares such as Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), Fortescue (ASX: FMG), BHP (ASX: BHP), and Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN).

• Oil prices reclaimed US$80 per barrel to end last week. The commodity was trading at a four-month high after the International Energy Agency forecast a tighter market in 2024, while also boosting its outlook for oil demand in 2024. Some energy names that might be in the spotlight include Woodside (ASX: WDS), Beach Energy (ASX: BPT), Exxon (NYSE: XOM), and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), to name but a few.

• Semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) launched its annual GPU technology conference over the weekend, inviting AI leaders OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, among others. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered a keynote address on Monday, announcing the new Blackwell chip and partnerships with Ansys, Cadence, and Synopsys — all software production companies.

• After shares in software firm Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) tumbled nearly 14% during Friday’s offshore trading session, the company will likely remain in the spotlight over the coming days. While the firm delivered annual revenue growth of 11% in the fiscal first-quarter, the mid-point of its guidance for the current quarter implied slower revenue growth of 9%.