The Business News Week Ahead

Monetary policy takes a break in the coming week which instead will be focused on a run of industrial production reports, from China and the Eurozone on Wednesday and the US on Thursday. Weakness in these reports would no doubt be attributed to declines underway in global trade and their effects on manufacturing. Labour market data from the UK will be posted on Tuesday as will Germany's ZEW confidence survey which has been very weak. Machine orders out of Japan will lead Wednesday's calendar along with Chinese data which, along with industrial production, will also include fixed asset investment and retail sales. Consensus for the week's Chinese data is steady to soft. Germany's GDP flash will also be posted Wednesday and strength here is not the consensus. The consumer will be the focus on Thursday with retail sales reports from both the UK and the US where strength in core readings for the latter is expected. The week winds up on Friday with merchandise trade out of the Eurozone and housing starts & permits out of the US.