The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index had a winning week for the first time this month. The Dow rose 65 points to close at 13,029 on Friday. The S&P 500 added a point and a half to 1,379.
AMP Investments chief economist Shane Oliver said the Australian futures trading index was only slightly higher after a positive day on US markets.
"We saw some good profit results in the US particularly from GE and Microsoft," he said. "But at the end of the day the US only closed up slightly.
"The (Australian) futures trading on the back of all that was just a seven-point rise." Mr Oliver said he expected the domestic market to be focused on the release of inflation figures this week.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its March quarter inflation data on Tuesday.
"The likelihood there is that they will be fairly benign," he said.
"There's probably a greater than normal focus on the inflation figures because the Reserve Bank has seemingly pinned a rate cut in May on getting a benign inflation outcome."
He tipped a headline rise in inflation of 0.7 per cent due to higher costs for health, education and utilities, which would give an annual gain of 2.2 per cent to the March quarter.
If Mr Oliver's prediction on the inflation data was correct that would increase the likelihood of the RBA cutting the cash rate from 4.25 per cent to 4.0 per cent on May 1. It would be the first rate cut by the RBA since consecutive easings of 25 basis points each last November and December.
The Australian dollar is at 103.7 US cents and is expected to stay fairly steady this week. In company news this week, Macquarie Group will release its full year results on Friday.
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