Retailers Carrefour: and Ahold as well as sales updates from French and US carmakers this week will give a taste of just how much consumers have dug into their pockets to keep economic recovery on track.
The European Central Bank meets on Thursday but is not expected to make changes to euro zone interest rates.
This Friday's US employment figures for December will be seized on for reassurance that recovery is creating new jobs so that consumers feel confident enough to keep spending.
Bourses snapped a three-year bear run to end higher in 2003, and investors bet that economic revival will continue to lift shares in the first half of 2004, before worries about possible interest rate rises and flagging growth move to centre stage.
"The first days of January are usually good, so we will see what they bring this time round," said Lex Werkheim of Eureffect asset management in Amsterdam.
Retailers will provide a litmus test for economic health as investors eye how well chains have fared during the key Christmas period - especially after British music and bookseller WH Smith issued a profit warning on Friday.
Consumer spending represents some two-thirds of economic activity and has been the key prop for recovery in the past year.
Christmas is a make-or-break period for many retailers. Carrefour, Europe's biggest supermarket group and the world's second-largest after Wal-Mart, gives a business update on Thursday, its first since its principal shareholder, Paul-Louis Halley, was killed in an airplane crash last month.
Dutch supermarket group Ahold posts quarterly sales this Friday. Ahold is working to restore profits following a big accounting scandal at its US food service catering business. The company's shares tumbled 42 percent in 2003.
"What I am looking for is a turnaround of US food service, whether they can bring that back to the black, as share valuations are way too low at the moment," said Eureffect's Werkheim.
"Food service is the main driver. The rest will be more of less as one expects, as they are trying to sell parts of the organisation, and we know they have just reshuffled large portions of their debt," Werkheim said.
Belgian supermarket Colruyt posts first half results on Monday.
Elsewhere in the retail sector, UK clothing retailer Next gives a business update on Tuesday, while on Thursday, UK supermarket the Big Food Group, and the world's largest jewellery retailer, Signet of Britain, give their updates on business.
The European car sector will be on tenterhooks on Monday when US car and truck sales for December are released. Carmakers like Volkswagen are key exporters to the United States.
France's Peugeot-Citroen is due to unveil its global car sales on Wednesday, with domestic rival Renault doing likewise on the following day.
On Friday, France's car industry body said French new car sales edged up 0.6 percent in December, bringing the fall for 2003 to 6.3 percent as slack consumer morale weighed on Europe's worst-hit major auto market.
Peugeot Citroen saw domestic sales of its cars slide 18.6 percent in December, but Renault's domestic sales climbed four percent that month.
Comments
Comments are closed.