The Business News Week Ahead

The week opens with a flurry of key updates from China led by GDP and including fixed asset investment, industrial production, and retail sales. Most are expected to slow with any weakness, especially for GDP or industrial production, likely to be blamed on US trade tensions. And there will be plenty of inflation data including the UK and the Eurozone on Wednesday along with Canada and Japan on Friday. Weakness in manufacturing is a top concern for central bankers right now with US industrial production posted on Tuesday and Canadian manufacturing sales on Wednesday. Consumer spending has been holding up better than manufacturing in the global data and one of the biggest reports of the week will be US retail sales on Tuesday where expectations, however, are modest to mixed. Other readings on the consumer will be on Friday with Canadian retail sales and the latest consumer sentiment report out of the US. If the China data on Monday slow and US industrial production and retail sales prove soft on Tuesday, rate-cut expectations are certain to get a boost, though an offset would be surprise pressure in the week's inflation data which perhaps can't be ruled out following the strong showing for US core consumer prices in the prior week.