Japan Data Due On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Japan will release a batch of data on Tuesday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are December numbers for unemployment, household spending, industrial production and housing starts, plus small business confidence for January.

The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 3.1 percent, while household spending is expected to sink 0.9 percent on year after slipping 1.5 percent in November.

Industrial production is called higher by 0.3 percent on month and 3.0 percent on year after rising 1.5 percent on month and 4.6 percent on year in the previous month.

Housing starts are expected to climb 8.4 percent on year to 938,000 following the 6.7 percent jump in November to 937,000. The small business confidence index had a score of 48.8 in December.

Australia will see December results for the business confidence index from NAB, as well as private sector credit data.

In November, the business conditions and conditions indexes both had a score of +5. Private sector credit is expected to hold steady, up 0.5 percent on month and 5.4 percent on year.

Thailand will see December figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In November, imports were worth $16.10 billion and exports were at $18.89 billion for a trade surplus of $2.79 billion.

Malaysia will see December numbers for producer prices; in November, prices were up 1.1 percent on month and 2.2 percent on year.

Finally, several markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year, including China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.