The Business News Week Ahead

Labor will be the week's major theme including Germany's unemployment rate on Thursday followed on Friday by monthly employment reports from Canada and the US, both having suffered the greatest job losses of the major economies. And US jobless claims on Thursday will offer the first look at what to expect for employment conditions in June. Consumer readings will include Eurozone retail sales on Thursday followed on Friday by household spending in Japan which was already stubbornly weak even before the virus hit. Manufacturing will get anecdotal updates on Monday with both the CFLP report from China and the ISM report from the US, followed on Friday by a definitive orders update from German manufacturers. Other news of note will be led by the Hong Kong PMI at midweek and also consumer prices in Switzerland on Thursday and how deflationary the pandemic is proving to be. Central banks, whose guns are overheated and ammunition depleted, will also be on the schedule headlined by the European Central Bank on Thursday.