The Business News Week Ahead

Confidence and PMI reports will provide a heavy run of timely April updates in the week. Confidence data from Germany will include ZEW on Tuesday and GfK on Thursday and then on Friday the closely watched Ifo survey. Wednesday will see both France's business climate indicator and the European Commission's consumer confidence flash while on Friday, the business and consumer confidence report will be posted in Italy as will as April's final reading on US consumer sentiment where further trouble is expected. Purchasing manager flashes for April are set for Thursday and will measure the business impact on the services and manufacturing sectors, beginning in order with Japan, France, Germany, the Eurozone, the UK, and the US. Opening the week will be Japanese international trade on Monday with US durable goods posted on Friday, both for March. Also closely watched, of course, will be US weekly jobless claims on Thursday, which have been slowing but still coming in at unprecedented levels.