Aug 10, 2026 – 7.32amKey Posts7 mins ago — 7.33AMASX set to rise as earnings season ramps up ahead of RBA8 mins ago — 7.33AMGood morningGo to latestPinned post – 7.33AMASX set to rise as earnings season ramps up ahead of RBACecile LefortAustralian shares are set to reach a fresh high on Monday, but investors are preparing for a bumpy ride in a busy week of company earnings led by Commonwealth Bank and a possible warning on interest rates from the Reserve Bank of Australia.Futures indicate the S&P/ASX 200 Index will rise 33 points, or 0.4 per cent, at the opening bell on Monday, extending a week of strong gains in which the index hit record highs.The benchmark climbed 3.5 per cent last week, its biggest increase in four months.This momentum follows Wall Street, where the S&P 500 closed at a record high to cap off a strong week. All three major indices posted their biggest weekly gains since April as strong company results eased worries about huge spending by artificial intelligence providers.Confidence was further lifted by an unexpectedly weak US employment report. Payroll data showed a loss of 23,000 jobs against forecasts of an 80,000 gain, leading financial markets to retreat from expectations of an interest rate increase by the US Federal Reserve at its mid-September meeting.In Australia, attention centres on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy meeting on Tuesday, when it is widely expected to keep the cash rate at 4.35 per cent after raising it three times since February to control inflation.Even so, economists warn that policymakers are likely to maintain firm warnings about price growth, repeating the risk of further tightening.All 37 analysts surveyed by Reuters predict a hold on Tuesday, while 27 expect rates to remain that way for the rest of the year. All four major banks – ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac – forecast that the cash rate has peaked.However, David Robertson, chief economist at Bendigo Bank, is not in that camp and believes the next rate move is still up rather than down.“By November, core inflation will still be up around 3.4 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and the RBA might start to lose patience,” he said. “We struggle to see how the RBA will be in a position to cut rates until it’s back below 3 per cent and that just doesn’t look imminent at all. So we’re not currently forecasting rate cuts, or certainly not until 2028.”With financial markets giving only about a 50 per cent chance that the RBA will raise the cash rate this year, Emanuel Datt, chief investment officer at Datt Capital, stressed that any language in the policy statement or press conference hinting at a future rate increase would affect confidence.Datt will scrutinise Commonwealth Bank’s report on Wednesday for additional insights into the health of the economy.“It’s such an important financial institution, and they’ve got good data on how housing is going with their arrears and loan book. It’s a different source of data from [the Australian Bureau of Statistics], and is a kind of bellwether of future economic activity,” he said.Read more hereFetching latest articles