Data on Europe’s Economy, Job Numbers and Janet Yellen’s Goodbye<br />The three As of tech — Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google — are expected to provide more insight<br />on Thursday into how well devices like the iPhone, Amazon Echo and Google Home sold over the holiday quarter.<br />Here’s what to expect in the week ahead:<br />Official data being released Tuesday is expected to confirm<br />that the European economy continued to boom in the final three months of 2017, with no signs of a slowdown.<br />The Fed raised its benchmark rate at its last meeting, in December, and another rate increase is expected at its meeting in March.<br />Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, is expected to report fourth quarter<br />2017 earnings on Thursday, followed by Exxon Mobil and Chevron on Friday.<br />If history is any guide, Fed officials will deliver tributes to Ms. Yellen at the meeting,<br />but the details won’t be shared with the public until the meeting transcripts are released in five years.<br />Mexico will auction 29 deepwater exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico to international<br />oil companies on Wednesday as part of its broad opening to private energy investment.
