RPT-WEEKAHEAD - the view from Reuters Asia news editors

(Repeats from early Monday)

SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Following is the view from
Reuters Asia editors on the news that is likely to matter most
for the week ahead starting Oct. 26:

* AUSTRALIA CPI: Point to 50 bps November hike?

* POLICY PRESSURE: Will the BOJ rebuff govt on exit
strategy?

* EARNINGS: Financials, consumer electronics in focus

* ASIA HOT: Asian emerging markets still flavour of the
year

* CHINA DEMAND: Sept commodity demand likely to surprise

* INDIA CROPS: Hard numbers on summer crop, winter planting

* AFGHAN RUNOFF:Taliban vow to disrupt; US troops decision

AUSTRALIA INFLATION (Oct. 28)

Will the Australia rate rise in November be 50 basis points
or 25? The answer probably depends on how Wednesday's Q3
inflation numbers turn out. The Reserve Bank of Australia has
clearly shifted its focus from growth to inflation, signaling
the change in speeches and the minutes of the last meeting.
That has led markets to price in a higher (30 percent on
Friday) chance of a 50 basis point rise in November. The
clincher will probably be the CPI numbers. A spike in
government taxes, utility and urban transport charges and
higher petrol prices will boost headline CPI. But all eyes will
be on the underlying measures. Our poll shows the
quarter-on-quarter changes in the RBA's preferred core
measures--trimmed mean (0.7 percent) and weighted median (0.8
percent) --point to annual rates of 3.2 percent and 3.7
percent, respectively. That is still above the RBA's 2-3
percent target. An upside surprise will tilt the market in
favour of 50 bps. A downside surprise will leave bets on the
Nov. 3 rate decision at 25 bps. Monday's producer price data
often have little correlation to actual CPI, but signs of
pressure in the pipeline will only increase the excitement
around Wednesday's number.
(dayan.candappa@thomsonreuters.com)

BANK OF JAPAN (Oct. 30)

A couple of strong exclusives have given us insight into
what the Bank of Japan may do on Friday and the focus will
remain on how the central bank defines its relationship with
the government. [ID:nT277354] [ID:nSP365377]

We'll run a BOJ FOCUS piece on how government pressure is
being seen inside the bank. There's a fair chance the BOJ will
extend its forecast for deflation to three years from two, even
though the board's calculations suggest Japan's potential
growth rate may have collapsed to near zero. That would suggest
price pressure will start building more quickly than under
previous assumptions. One thing's for sure: rates will stay on
hold for a long time to come. The more immediate policy
question is whether BOJ will start withdrawing from credit
markets in December. Our exclusive last week suggests the board
was leaning in that direction, and preparing to rebuff some
pretty clumsy government pressure to keep buying corporate
bonds and lending against commercial paper. If the bank
actually does that at the same time as it forecasts a further
year of deflation it would be making quite an emphatic
statement about who wears the policy pants. Failure to do so
would keep open the question of whether it is likely to cave
into government pressure on other matters, such as purchases of
JGBs. JGBv1
(dayan.candappa@thomsonreuters.com)
>Top economic events [M/DIARY]

EARNINGS DELUGE

FINANCIALS: Top China, Japan, Australia, Korea, India
banks.

Lending by ICBC (1398.HK)(601398.SS) (Oct. 29), the world's
largest bank by market value, and a host of other China banks,
will be in focus after a loan surge in the first half that is
now believed to have been scaled down under Beijing's more
cautious monetary policy.

Japan's two biggest brokers, Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T)
(Oct. 28) and Daiwa Securities Group (8601.T) (Oct. 30), are
expected to post profits in the quarter through September,
helped by gains from fixed income trading as markets
stabilised. Nomura has been hiring bankers for its U.S. trading
operations and also recently raised capital to help it expand
the operations it took over from Lehman. With Daiwa, focus is
on any plans to raise capital as well as its strategy for
investment banking after breaking ties with Sumitomo Mitsui
Financial Group (8316.T).

TECH: Consumer electronics from Sony and Samsung to
Nintendo.

Sony Corp (6758.T) and Panasonic Corp (6752.T), the world's
two largest consumer electronics companies, report Q2 results
(Oct 30). Sony is expected to have swung to an operating loss
in July-September, hit by a strong yen, its struggling
cellphone joint venture with Ericsson and the PlayStation 3
price cut. Panasonic will likely have eked out a small profit,
helped by brisk sales of cameras and LCD TVs. Besides earnings
results, Panasonic will be closely watched for any update on
its planned acquisition of Sanyo Electric Co. We will also wrap
in Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) Q3 (Oct 30). The world's top
maker of memory chips and LCD TVs is expected to post record
quarterly profits as memory chip prices rebounded and on brisk
sales of mobile phones and TVs. Nintendo Co's (7974.OS) Q2
results (Oct. 29) could fall short of company forecasts due to
sluggish sales of Wii console, revenue-drop off from a Wii
price cut and the strong yen. Focus on whether it lowers its
full-year forecast.
>Company news diary [GLO/EQUITY]
(jean.yoon@thomosnreuters.com