The Business News Week Ahead

The week opens with a bang: Chinese trade data on Monday which are expected to improve followed on Tuesday by Chinese inflation data, both consumer and producer prices and here sharply mixed results are the expectations. There will be no let up at midweek as the Federal Reserve issues a policy announcement on Wednesday with expectations uniform for no change. And expectations are also uniform for the Swiss National Bank and European Central Bank both on Thursday where no action is also the call. Industrial production will be an extended theme in the week, posted by France, Italy and the UK all on Tuesday and by the Eurozone on Thursday; here too expectations are uniform — all weak. Other data will include the latest ZEW expectations survey out of Germany on Tuesday and the fourth-quarter Tankan sentiment report from Japan on Friday. The week caps off with no less than US retail sales on Friday, in a report for November that will offer the first definitive data on the 2019 holiday shopping season.