The FT’s Vanessa Kortekaas highlights the key stories to watch in the week ahead, including an address by Angela Merkel on the future of Europe, economic data from the UK, and third-quarter results from Walmart and other US retailers
Here are some of the top stories we’re watching this week german chancellor angela merkel will set out a vision for the eu will get some key indicators on the health of the uk economy and earnings season kicks off for us retailers will start in europe where german chancellor angela merkel is set to address the european parliament to set out a vision for the
Eu at a time of huge political change her speech on tuesday comes just weeks after announcing her decision to resign as chair of the christian democratic union party so this address will provide the first signs of how the chancellor intends to approach big european issues during her final stretch in office as one of europe’s most powerful figures her looming
Departure has unsettled some allies in europe who worry the political transition in germany might hold back reform efforts in europe miss merkel’s speech to mep s in strasbourg will also show whether the chancellor feels more emboldened to take big reform decisions before leaving office or whether the political constraints facing her government in berlin will be
Critical here’s gideon rahman with more on what to expect this will be in a way a poignant moment because angela merkel has been the dominant figure in european politics for about a decade and although inevitably she’s done some controversial things on for example the eurozone bailouts broadly speaking she’s regarded in brussels as a friend and a defender of
The european project and people will be a little anxious about the direction that germany the most powerful state in the eu will take in the post merkel era but merkel will also have to provide guidance and reassurance about other big issues facing the european union there’s brexit which will happen in march 2019 if it goes ahead on schedule there’s a looming
Confrontation between the new populist nationalist government of italy in the european commission / it leads new budget plans which break eu rules and there are big parliamentary elections for the european parliament in may which could see the background being a surge in support for populist euroskeptic parties so this is a very big year for the european union
And it’s one in which day i think will still look to angela merkel even though she is sliding off the political scene they’ll still be looking to her for a bit of guidance and reassurance now in the uk we’ll be watching for a raft of economic data labor market statistics published on tuesday will include figures on wage growth and employment while on wednesday
The office for national statistics will publish the latest inflation figures this will give us some insight into how quickly living standards are recovering in the uk this year after the cheaper pound squeezed spending power following the eu referendum in the last edition of wage growth figures growth and average earnings excluding bonuses rose to 3.1 percent
In the three months to the end of august this was the highest rate since 2009 but with inflation of 2.7 percent in the same period earnings only grew by 0.4 percent in real terms here’s chris giles on the outlook for the uk economy following a strong summer for the uk economy the question this week is whether we’re now seeing a pretty sharp slowdown this autumn
Business surveys have been really weak recently with companies expressing quite a lot of concern that brexit uncertainty means that they don’t want to invest don’t want to hire staff at the moment and so the data this week will be a good test of whether these survey indicators which should be negative are now reflected in the official data if it’s positive that
Means the rest of the year might well be quite strong still if it’s negative then i think we can say that brexit is really having quite a depressing effect on the uk economy and the quicker any deal is done the better for next year and finally earnings season for us retailers gets into full swing this week with third quarter reporting from several of the sector’s
Largest companies on thursday walmart the world’s biggest retailer will publish its results while on tuesday the home improvement chain home depot reports their third quarter results the recent bankruptcy of department stores sears points to persistent challenges facing bricks and mortar companies but much of the rest of the sector is actually coping better with
The e-commerce threat the retail industry is benefiting from a robust us economy and strong consumer spending even macy’s the struggling department store chain is expected on wednesday to post a year-on-year rise in same store sales of about 2.5 percent here’s alistair gray with more on the state of the us retail sector the earnings coming to time of strength and
Share prices for us retailers walmart’s drama – biotech as lower than me wall street’s become more comfortable that americans are still spending in bricks and mortar stores in the age of amazon sales and profits are being supported by a strong economy walmart’s like-for-like sales are expected to be up almost three percent from a year ago the company has been
Pushing various initiatives to better compete with e-commerce rivals from curbside pickup to same-day delivery a home depot like-for-like sales are expected to be even stronger about 4.7 percent the figures come ahead of what’s expected to be a buoyant christmas shopping season but there are still big questions about the threat from internet retail investors
We’ll also be keeping a close eye on how the companies respond to price increases that are being pushed through by several of their largest suppliers and that’s the week ahead from the financial times in london
Transcribed from video
Merkel speech, UK inflation, Walmart results By Financial Times
