The Business News Week Ahead

An unsettling gain of only 100,000 for US nonfarm payrolls would mark an inauspicious opening for 2021, but that's the expectation for Friday's report. A very heavy week of data opens Monday with German unemployment where, by contrast with the US and reflecting the success of German emergency efforts, steady results are expected. Yet other German data in the week ‒ retail sales on Tuesday, consumer prices on Wednesday, manufacturers' orders on Thursday, industrial production on Friday ‒ are not expected to show strength, mostly deterioration instead. French data will also include consumer prices on Wednesday followed on Friday by both consumer manufactured goods consumption and industrial production with both, especially the former, expected to show severe lockdown effects. Other data to watch will be Swiss consumer prices on Tuesday where lack of improvement would be a further concern for the Swiss National Bank and Japanese household spending on Wednesday where the Bank of Japan will be looking for confirmation of emerging strength. Joining US employment on Friday will be Eurozone unemployment as well as Canadian employment with outright contraction for the latter the call. ISM manufacturing, posted on Tuesday and expected to slow slightly, will be the only other key US indicator in the week.