Week Ahead: nuclear engineering | a quality US stock | UK housing market

Good morning and welcome to the Week Ahead. I hope you're enjoying the long weekend.

It's a four-day week for UK investors and after a deluge of earnings in the final week of March, it’s looking like a much quieter week following the Easter break. US earnings season doesn’t get going in earnest until 8 April and most big UK companies with 31 December year ends have now reported.

Economic data due this week could influence sentiment, however. In the US, unemployment data and purchasing data from manufacturers could provide fresh insight into the strength of the world’s biggest economy in election year.

Closer to home, EU inflation and manufacturing data is also due next week.

In the UK, purchasing data is also expected, but I suspect that housing-related news will grab more headlines. The latest Nationwide and Halifax house price indices are scheduled for this week, together with mortgage approval data from the Bank of England.

Recent updates from some housebuilders have shown sales rates improving since November. Some CEOs have suggested that the worst may be over for the UK housing market, but of course they are paid to be bullish. It will be interesting to...