Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for APAC at eToro Group Ltd (Unlisted (US):ETRO), shares his three things to watch in Australia in the coming days.
AU CPI
It’s a quiet week on the macro front, but April’s monthly CPI read on Wednesday will be the focus for markets. The RBA has hiked three times this year, taking the cash rate higher off the back of an energy-driven shock that the Board simply couldn't ignore. But, we’re finally set up for a pause, with markets pricing virtually no chance of a cut at June’s meeting. The board is clearly willing to sit on its hands for now, and see how the tightening is playing through.
That’s what makes this week’s print interesting, because it's very unlikely to change the direction of June’s meeting, but a softer reading would start to build the case that the work the RBA has already done is working. A hot print, however, will only ignite expectations of another hike in the back end of the year. At this current juncture, that seems more likely.
The focal point will be trimmed mean inflation. We’ve seen headline inflation thrown around over the last few months by energy prices and the fuel excise changes, but the RBA cares about what’s underneath. Ultimately, that trimmed inflation number has been stubbornly above the top of the 2-3% target band for longer than anyone is comfortable with, and until that breaks decisively lower, the RBA can't claim the job is done.
Goodman Group Q3 sales update
Nvidia delivered another set of blowout numbers last week, and Jensen Huang said on the earnings call that demand for AI infrastructure is parabolic. That’s a pretty solid signal from the CEO of the world’s largest company that the AI trade has a marathon still left in it. This week, one of the names at the centre of the AI buildout in Australia, Goodman Group, hands down its quarterly numbers. With shares down this year following a soft H1 result and rising rates, investors will be looking for a solid report to provide a tailwind to shares.
The company has been pivoting hard away from traditional warehouses toward data centres, with a pipeline of 6 gigawatts of power capacity across 16 major cities globally. The demand story is hard to argue with. The big US cloud providers, the companies that fill Goodman's data centres, are lifting capital spending at a pace the market has never seen before.
The focus from this update will be any changes to full-year guidance, with deals in Europe and North America running ahead of expectations. Ultimately, the demand is there, but investors want to see that demand translated into earnings and let the numbers do the talking.
Salesforce earnings
The "SaaSpocalypse" has been undoubtedly painful for Salesforce, with shares down more than 30% in 2026. The belief that seat-based software is heading towards extinction stems from the fear that AI and the evolution to AI agents make traditional enterprise software look expensive, and in some cases redundant.
But Salesforce is more than just software. Last year, the business saw US$21.6 billion in CRM revenue, more than Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and SAP combined, and has held the top spot in CRM for 12 straight years. AI doesn't replace that; it runs on top of it, and the data and workflow context Salesforce has built over 20 years is exactly what makes agents useful in the first place.
Agentforce, Salesforce’s AI offering, hit US$800 million in ARR at the end of FY26, up 169% year-on-year while the business closed a record 12 deals above US$10 million last quarter, more than any quarter in the company’s history. That doesn’t sound like a business that’s being diminished by AI.
Right now, Agentforce revenue is a small piece of the pie at just 2% of revenue, but the trajectory is clear. Management has told us they expect faster growth in the back half of this year as Agentforce scales, and it’s clearly backing that with its US$50 billion buyback last quarter.
Earnings this week will be the true test of whether we start to see SaaSpocalypse fears fade or continue. The market has written its own story up until now on what AI means for Salesforce, and these earnings are its chance to change that narrative.