The Business News Week Ahead

The week's theme is timely data, capped on Thursday by October PMI flashes out of Japan and Europe. CBI industrial trends out of the UK, also for October and which have been struggling badly, will be posted on Tuesday. French business climate, in contrast, has been holding up well and will lead Wednesday's session followed by EC consumer confidence which, though soft, has been steady. Japanese PMI flashes open Thursday's heavy run that will include European PMIs the most important of which to watch will be German manufacturing, and whether and how deep it continues to contract, and also German services and whether it continues to be pulled under by manufacturing. The highlight on Thursday will be a policy statement from the European Central Bank which is facing stagnation in Europe yet may not cut its main policy rate. A central concern in the US is weakness in business investment with capital goods data in the durable goods report, also on Thursday, offering important updates. Germany winds up the week with GfK consumer climate and Ifo business climate data on Friday.