The Business News Week Ahead

A full slate of economic data begins Monday with an April update out of Texas and how much deeper the state's manufacturing sector is now contracting. Distributive trades on Tuesday will offer April indications on spending retrenchment in the UK and the consumer confidence index in the US, also on Tuesday, will track how low spirits have sunk. Between the virus and oil, deflationary forces have been unleashed with Germany's preliminary CPI, posted on Wednesday, to offer some of the very first hard data on April price conditions. Virus effects on employment were very evident in the US, which will update jobless claims on Thursday, but are comparatively unknown in Europe where Germany's unemployment rate, also released Thursday, is expected to rise only moderately. Other data will include first-quarter GDP reports from the US and the Eurozone, on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as several announcements from central banks all of which, however, have already played their cards. Of special note will be international trade in goods in the US and whether port closures were already stifling cross-border trade.