Key takeaways:

• BHP, Rio Tinto, Qantas, Coles, Woolworths, and Block headline earnings this week

• Wages growth data and RBA minutes to guide monetary policy outlook

Following a mixed session for Wall Street on Friday, and two straight weeks of losses for the ASX, the Australian share market enters the new trading week with momentum slowing.

Economic Calendar and News

One of the major focal points across the local economic calendar this week will be wages growth, with data from the December quarter set to shine light on a key barometer that the Reserve Bank of Australia is monitoring as part of its framework for deciding monetary policy.Based on consensus forecasts, wages likely grew by 1% in the December quarter, or 3.5% on an annual basis. With inflation running at more than twice that figure, workers are currently fighting real wage losses, but the RBA has also emphasised the importance of avoiding a wage-price spiral, which could entrench elevated inflation.

That means the RBA will be looking for inflation to come down towards meeting wages growth, and then towards its benchmark target of between 2-3%, rather than see wages growth increase to match inflation.

Nonetheless, the minutes from the RBA January Board meeting will also be made public on Tuesday. At the January meeting, the nation central bank offered a hawkish outlook for interest rates, suggesting that further interest rate hikes would be necessary over the coming months.It will be a similar story in the US, where the minutes from the Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting will be scrutinised by investors for clues on the direction of interest rates with inflation falling from peak levels.Elsewhere, the US economic calendar includes a second estimate on GDP growth, crude oil holdings, and the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index, which is the Fed preferred measure of inflation. Prices for core goods and services are tipped to have increased 0.4% month-over-month, or 4.3% over the last 12 months. Staying abroad, look out for fresh inflation data out of the Eurozone region on Thursday, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will also be in the spotlight ahead of what is likely to be another rate hike. Analysts expect the RBNZ to raise interest rates by 50 basis points, which would take the official cash rate to 4.75%.

Stocks on watch

Earnings remain the pressing theme over the coming days, with the busiest week of the earnings season set to provide insights on a range of matters spanning inflation to the economic outlook. 

The week will open with results from names including but not limited to Altium (ASX: ALU), a2 Milk (ASX: A2M), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX: BEN), BlueScope Steel (ASX: BSL), Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST), and Reliance Worldwide (ASX: RWC).

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank could offer the market further clues on the economic outlook, a week after Commonwealth Bank earnings raised questions as to whether net interest margins have peaked. That comes amid intense competition in the home loan market, and pressure to pass on higher deposit rates to savers. 

A day later, the calendar features companies such as Alumina (ASX: AWC), BHP (ASX: BHP), Coles (ASX: COL), G8 Education (ASX: GEM), Hub24 (ASX: HUB), Monadelphous (ASX: MND), and Viva Energy Group (ASX: VEA).

Investors will be looking closely at BHP dividend, with forecasts suggesting an interim dividend of 88 US cents per share. That would be nearly half the amount declared this time last year, however, earnings are also expected to decrease significantly given the prior corresponding period saw record profits on the back of higher iron ore prices.

Meanwhile, earnings from Coles will paint a picture on consumer behaviour in the face of sky-high inflation. Furthermore, shareholders will be looking to see how effectively the supermarket giant passed on higher operating expenses and staff costs, especially with the brand taking on a different strategy compared with a targeted marketing strategy from Woolworths.

By Wednesday there will be even more data from a broad range of sectors, with the headline results set to come from Coronado Global Resources (ASX: CRN), Domino Pizza (ASX: DMP), EML Payments (ASX: EML), Flight Centre (ASX: FLT), Lovisa (ASX: LOV), OZ Minerals (ASX: OZL), Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), Santos (ASX: STO), WiseTech (ASX: WTC), and Woolworths (ASX: WOW), among others.

Forecasts suggest Rio Tinto full-year profit may have decreased by more than one-third, with rising costs also proving a challenge for the iron ore titan. Results from oil and gas player Santos are expected to reflect a downturn in the price of these commodities across recent months.

As it stands, Thursday will be a jam-packed day for earnings. Look out for results from APA Group (ASX: APA), Atlas Arteria (ASX: ALX), Auckland International Airport (ASX: AIX), Blackmores (ASX: BLK), Eagers Automotive (ASX: APE), Medibank (ASX: MPL), Perpetual (ASX: PPT), Qantas (ASX: QAN), Qube (ASX: QUB), and Ramsay Health Care (ASX: RHC).

With airline ticket prices at record highs following the resumption of travel, some observers believe Qantas could deliver a bumper result that features a profit upgrade. Currently, the airline guidance is for underlying pre-tax profits of up to $1.45 billion in the half. Despite a positive half, attention will centre on the company outlook, including any hints that suggest CEO Alan Joyce might retire, and ticket prices in the face of what could be increasing competition down under.

Last but not least, the week ends with results from Allkem (ASX: AKE), Block (ASX: SQ2), Brambles (ASX: BXB), Jumbo Interactive (ASX: JIN), and Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN). 

With the outlook for lithium prices one of the more contentious topics at this point in time, Allkem and Mineral Resources may provide a temperature check for the sector, albeit their costs will also come under scrutiny as the industry contends with inflationary pressure. 

In the US, retail earnings are also on show thanks to Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT). Investors will likely be looking at how the two retailers have managed their inventory, but there are also earnings on the way from tech stocks like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BAB), and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN).