CEP News) - Market participants will be watching Australian consumer confidence and Chinese trade balance data during the Asian Pacific session.
Westpac's consumer confidence index fell by 4.6% in February, reflecting a turn for the worse in the Australian labour market.
The Australian unemployment report for February, scheduled for release Wednesday EDT, is expected to show a climb in the unemployment rate to 5.0% from 4.8%.
In Japan, machine orders for January will be released. Economists are expecting a staggering 40.0% annual decline, after a 26.8% drop the month prior. Japan's export-dependent economy has been pummeled by the global recession.
Late in the session, China is expected to release its trade balance for February. While China's trade surplus has held steady for the last few months, economists expect it to shrink significantly in February to US$28.3 billion from US$39.11 billion.
Mark Williams, economist at Capital Economics, said that if the 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese newspaper, is right, exports and imports both fell by 20% in the month.
"One impact would be to shred the trade surplus - it reached $39bn in January, but a contraction on that scale would reduce it to around $7bn," he said
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