Australia:

Mon: Business indicators (Q2), Building approvals (Jul), Home prices (Aug), Job ads (Aug)

Tue: Balance of payments (Q2)

Wed: GDP (Q2), RBA Governor Michele Bullock speaks

Thu: Trade balance (Jul), Household spending indicator (July) RBA Dep Gov Andrew Hauser speaks

International:

Mon: US — Financial markets closed

Tue: US — ISM manufacturing (Aug), Construction spending (Jul)

           EU — CPI (Aug)

Wed: US — Factory orders (Jul), Job openings (Jul)

Thu: US — ADP employment change (Aug), Trade balance (Jul),

Fri: US — Non-farm payrolls (Aug)

The National Accounts on Wednesday is the key figure for the week locally with the NAB economics team forecasting 0.3% growth across the June quarter, or 1.4% year-on-year.

That result would be a bit weaker than RBA expectations.

There are still some partial pieces of the GDP jigsaw to drop — business indicators (Monday) and balance of payments (Tuesday), but there are some assumptions that can already be made.

Domestic consumption looks stronger, but business and dwelling investment are likely to be drags.

Weaker export prices won’t help, but Tuesday’s quarterly balance of payments may yet make a slight positive contribution to real GDP.

July building approvals (Monday) are likely to slip over the month, if for no other reason than there was a solid jump in June.

The July trade balance should stay at around a $5.5 billion surplus after the surprise $1.5 billion result back in May.

The Household Spending Indicator for July (Thursday) is expected to show the recovery of consumer activity is continuing.

For ASX investors, around 80 listed companies are expected to shell out dividends this week.

On Commsec figures, more than $700 million worth of dividends are expected to to be paid out to investors this week.

Overseas, US non-farm payrolls (Friday) will dominate the psyche of investors this week.

Societe General is calling the figures “the most consequential NFP in a long time.”

“So, the all-important question is whether the collapse in employment growth in May/June was a statistical mirage, or whether there has indeed been a sudden and severe labour market weakening,” SG’s Klaus Baader wrote in a note over the weekend.

“The former would imply only minimal or no easing in Fed policy in the near term, the latter a forceful and substantial rate cutting cycle amounting to, in our view, some 100bp in a short period of time.”

The market consensus is for another insipid month’s job growth in August of 73,000, around the same as July, with unemployment ticking up to 4.3%.