Business News Week Ahead

A lull before the flood may be the theme of the coming week's minimal slate of economic data. Delayed reports for factory orders on Monday and international trade on Wednesday are the week's highlights though both, due to January's government shutdown, will cover data from way back in November. Still, both reports especially trade will offer key inputs into fourth-quarter GDP, the outlook for which, given the lack of updates especially on consumer spending, is still foggy. Lack of data looks to trim details in the first estimate of fourth-quarter productivity and unit labor costs which appears to be preceding the quarterly GDP report. "Appears" is the warning given the day-to-day scramble at the Census and Bureau of Economic Analysis and the possibility that delayed reports may suddenly make a re-appearance.