The Business News Week Ahead

The coming week is dominated by US economic data especially durable goods orders on Wednesday and PCE price readings on Friday, two reports that have not been meeting Federal Reserve expectations. The week opens on Monday with Germany's Ifo survey of business confidence followed on Tuesday with the business climate indicator out of France. Both of these reports are fighting multi-year lows. New home sales will be posted on Tuesday for a US housing sector that has been trending higher. Consumer confidence in the US has been holding firm and will also be updated Tuesday. The key to Wednesday's US durable goods report will be core capital goods orders which have been slowing noticeably and which drew the attention of Jerome Powell at June's FOMC press conference. Forecasters here aren't calling for much strength nor are they for Friday's key US inflation readings with both total year-on-year PCE prices and most importantly the core expected to slump further. Japanese industrial production and retail sales data as well as the KOF leading indicator out of Switzerland will be released earlier Friday.