A continued flow of economic indicators including British, German and French gross domestic product will be released this week and investors will get an idea how these economies fared in the third quarter. Yet this will be old news as two-thirds of the fourth quarter is nearly over. The important Ifo business sentiment survey will be available midweek and this could be more relevant in trying to get a handle on how weak the German economy currently really is.

The European Central Bank will meet on Thursday but no monetary policy matters are on the agenda. According to a November 8 announcement, the ECB will discuss monetary policy matters only during the first meeting of the month. This should be a relief to investors who won't have to suffer rate jitters every two weeks.

Investors will be assessing the economic evidence and trying to figure out if the current up-surge in equities prices has legs. This is a thanksgiving holiday shortened week in the United States and overseas markets will be pretty much on their own at week's end.

Introduction   •   Global Stock Market Indexes   •   Recap of Global Markets   •   Currencies   •  Indicator Scoreboard

The Bottom Line   •   Looking Ahead