The Business News Week Ahead

Central to the upcoming week will be central bank meetings: the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday followed by the Bank of England and Federal Reserve both on Thursday. A 0.15 basis point rate cut is expected from the RBA and additional quantitative easing is expected from the BoE; no action is expected from the Fed. Manufacturing data have generally been improving including in Germany where manufacturers' orders on Thursday and industrial production on Friday will be watched for confirmation of the country's strong PMI results. Improvement for US manufacturing has on net been moderate though ISM's sample, data to be released Monday, has been posting especially strong numbers. Demand-side data will include Eurozone retail sales on Thursday and Japanese household spending on Friday, neither of which are expected to show gains. And mixed-to-steady showings are the expectations for Friday's employment combo, from both Canada and the US.