We should also see signs of strength in the eurozone. Industrial production in France and Italy should rise, after falls last month. And although German output might seem weaker, this would only be because it followed a big rise in January. Also, official figures on Tuesday should show that retail sales in the region rose in February after falling for three months.
In this context, it would be alarming if we didn't see signs of strength in the UK. Friday's official figures should show that manufacturing output recovered in February after a surprise drop in January; the three-month on three-month growth rate should be strong. And purchasing managers should report on Monday that strength persisted in March.
Construction activity, however, might be weaker, with purchasing managers reporting only moderate growth; this would be consistent with Brexit-related uncertainty depressing spending on longer-lived assets. And there's a question mark over the services sector. Last month, purchasing managers reported that growth slowed to a five-month low. A repeat of that would be concerning.
We should watch out for two other developments. One concerns US inflation. Friday's figures could show that wage growth is edging up - which is one reason why the Fed recently raised interest rates. How big a danger this is is, however, moot. On the one hand, the unemployment rate is likely to drop to a 10-year low, suggesting the labour market is tight enough to generate inflation. On the other hand, though, millions of Americans are outside the labour-force: the employment-population ratio is far below pre-crisis levels. This suggests there might still be enough slack in the economy to hold down inflation.
Also, the Halifax house price index on Friday could show that house price inflation has halved in the past 12 months, to under 5 per cent. This reminds us that a lack of affordability and uncertainty are weighing on the market - although shortage of supply is expected to continue to support prices.
