MONDAY
Results: Trinity Biotech, Alphabet, McDonald's, Spotify.
Indicators: Irish retail sales (March); euro zone loan growth and money supply (March), business and consumer confidence (April), consumer inflation expectations (April), economic, industrial and services sentiment (April); US PCE price index (Feb and March), personal income and spending (March).
TUESDAY
Results: Merck, Pfizer, Mondelez, Apple, Lufthansa, Whitbread, General Electric, General Motors, Kraft Heinz, Fitbit, Mastercard.
Indicators: Irish unemployment (April); euro zone GDP (Q1), unemployment (March); UK consumer confidence (April), nationwide housing prices (April); German consumer confidence (May), import prices (March), unemployment (April), inflation (April); US employment costs (Q1).
Meetings: Independent News & Media agm (Westbury Hotel, Grafton Street, Dublin).
WEDNESDAY
Results: AerCap Holdings, Avis Budget Group, Molson Coors, Xerox, Estee Lauder, New York Times, Motorola Solutions, Trivago, Sotheby's.
Indicators: UK consumer credit (March), net lending to individuals (March), mortgage lending and approvals (March), manufacturing PMI (April); US manufacturing PMI (April), construction spending (March).
Meetings: US Fed interest rate decision; Hospitality Fit Out 2019 (RDS, Dublin); Nevin Economic Research Institute annual labour market conference (Ulster University, Derry).
THURSDAY
Results: Under Armour, Kellogg, Expedia.
Indicators: UK construction PMI (April); euro zone manufacturing PMI (April); German retail sales (March), manufacturing PMI (April); US factory orders (March).
Meetings: Bank of England interest rate decision; All Ireland Business Summit (Croke Park, Dublin); Small Firms Association (Aviva Stadium, Dublin); Electronomous: The Car Tech Summit (INEC Killarney, Co Kerry); Dublin Chamber's Sustainable Dublin 2050 series event with Green Party leader Eamon Ryan (Dublin Chamber, Clare Street, Dublin).
Future of business
The Small Firms Association presents the future of business as an almost apocalyptic inevitability – a fourth industrial revolution, it says, shaped by artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data and smart technologies.
“Research shows that since 2000, 50 per cent of Fortune 500 companies no longer exist. Technology is disrupting business on a seismic scale,” its 2019 Smart Business Conference website warns.
“Every industry has been impacted and this will continue. Small businesses must be able to adapt to these changes in some form or they will not survive.”
It is almost enough to intimidate small traditional companies out of business, but of course this year’s conference is about exactly the opposite of that.
And in keeping with its introductory tone, it adopts an “innovate or expire” approach – where members can learn the ways of the future and how to navigate it or cease to be.
Speakers this year include Regina Moran, enterprise director at Vodafone; Dr Katherine O'Keefe, chief ethicist, lead data governance and data protection consultant at Castlebridge; and Audrey O'Mahoney, head of Accenture's talent and organisation management consulting.
FRIDAY
Indicators: euro zone inflation rate (April), PPI (March); UK services PMI (April); US government payrolls (April), non-farm payrolls (April), unemployment (April), composite and services PMI (April), vehicle sales (April).
Meetings: 2019 Today's Women in Grocery industry event (Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin).
Women mean business
Much is said about today’s business world pushing to elevate more women, particularly into boardroom and senior management roles.
The food retail sectot can certainly be said to be doing its part – on Friday the Today’s Women in Grocery (Twig) group will host an event attended by an impressive 460 people to pursue such ambitions.
Lead speaker on the day is Kari Daniels, chief executive of Tesco, a leading grocery position that is hard to outdo.
“Since its establishment Today’s Women in Grocery has provided an important forum for women across our retail, grocery and food industries to support each other on their shared ambition to see more women break through to the senior ranks of our industry,” she said ahead of the event.
Visible events such as these are important in an area of social change that has proven mixed in Ireland.
A study by the IESE business school at the University of Navarra in Spain late last year placed Ireland third out of 34 countries in the "business leadership" category. Impressive if not for a survey two months earlier by recruitment company Korn Ferry that found women comprise just 13 per cent of the boards of listed Irish companies.
This may all be academic to Friday's Twig gathering, whose intentions are displayed in numbers. Founded just three years ago, it aims to encourage more female participation in industry events and initiatives by providing a female focused professional networking forum.