WITH just one week before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on March 25, the US markets will be paying close attention to Tuesday's housing starts data for February, expected to rise to 1.45 million. The major focus of the week will be February's CPI figures on Wednesday, with a slightly higher gain of 0.2 per cent forecast. Thursday's data includes the international trade deficit for January (estimated at US$10 billion) and the Philly Fed Index for March, which is anticipated to come in at 15.

It will be a very light week on the data front in Japan. February money supply figures are slated for Tuesday, with a 3 per cent rise expected, and the custom cleared trade data, due sometime this week, is forecast to post a surplus of 823 billion yen. There are no major data releases in Australia this week.

Source: Technical Data