Kicking off the calendar is a Reserve Bank of Australia speaker:

2300GMT - Luci Ellis, RBA Assistant Governor (Economic), at the 2017 Australasian Housing Researchers Conference

  • Ellis' comments are worth paying heed to. A year and a half ago she gave a speech (RBA's Ellis: Comments from her speech on financial stability) in which she said, in a nutshell, the RBA was not overly concerned on surging housing credit. The implication being such a development would not stop further rate cuts. Which indeed it did not. Well worth paying attention to.

2350GMT - Japan - International Securities Flows

2355GMT - New Zealand - Finance Minister Joyce speaks

0000GMT - New Zealand - ANZ's Consumer Confidence Index for February

  • prior +3.4% m/m

0000GMT - Australia - Consumer Inflation Expectations for February

  • prior 4.3%

0015GMT - Federal Reserve NY's Dudley speaking

0030GMT - Australia - Employment Report for January. This data has been indicating employment growth, but at a slow pace, well short of what leading indicators on the economy are suggesting, and well short of relieving RBA concerns over slack in the labour market. Another subdued reading on the employment change is the expected median consensus for today's report. The danger, IMO, is for a beat. Even if we get a beat the market will want to see that sustained in coming months to be convinced on labour market strength.

Employment Change:

  • expected 10.0K, prior 13.5K

Unemployment Rate:

  • expected 5.8%, prior 5.8%

Full Time Employment Change

  • prior was 9.3K

Part Time Employment Change

  • prior was 4.2K

Participation Rate

  • expected is 64.7%, prior was 64.7%

Also at 0030GMT - RBA transactions for January.