TECHNOLOGY

Is Big Blue Bouncing Back?

IBM’s revenue, which has fallen for 22 consecutive quarters, will be the focus of attention when the big technology company reports its financial results on Thursday. Analysts say the decline may well have stopped in the most recent quarter, as the company navigates a challenging shift to new businesses like cloud computing and artificial intelligence. If so, does it signal a true turnaround — or is it merely a blip helped by strong sales of a new line of mainframe computers? Steve Lohr

ECONOMY

Looking for Signs of a Shift in China

China could post flat or modestly higher growth figures when it reports its fourth-quarter and full-year economic results for 2017 on Thursday. That would not surprise China watchers, who have noted that the country’s headline economic figures have become implausibly stable in recent years. There may also be indications of what is to come this year. Now that an important leadership meeting has been completed, China may begin to shift its emphasis toward fixing some of its intractable financial, environmental and social problems and to temper its focus on growth. Carlos Tejada

Assessing the Outlook for Europe

Why have wages in Europe barely budged despite vigorous economic growth? What should the region’s priorities be now that the debt crisis seems to have passed? And what to think when it comes to inflation? Those are among the topics that a roster of prominent economists and policymakers will discuss on Thursday at a conference in Frankfurt that will be hosted by the International Monetary Fund and the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank. Speakers include Christine Lagarde, the fund’s managing director, and Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank president. Jack Ewing

A Fresh Snapshot of Consumer Sentiment

The University of Michigan is set to release its monthly survey of consumer sentiment on Friday. Consumer confidence was strong in 2017, although it dropped over the year’s final three months, to 95.9 in December. With the stock market booming, the jobless rate low and a new tax law in place, analysts expect the figure for January to inch up to 97. For comparison, the consumer sentiment index has averaged 86.2 since the early 1950s, peaking at 111.3 in February 2000 and bottoming out at 51.7 in May 1980. Patricia Cohen

MOVIES

A Sundance Without Harvey Weinstein

What is the Sundance Film Festival without Harvey Weinstein? The movie industry is about to find out. On Thursday, the festival begins its 34th year in Park City, Utah, with 121 feature-length movies on the calendar, 53 from first-time filmmakers. Sundance prides itself on discovering striking new voices, but it is also about cold, hard commerce. On that front, this will be the first festival in roughly 30 years where Mr. Weinstein will not be among the shoppers. Fox Searchlight may be hesitant to write big checks after its last two Sundance acquisitions, “The Birth of a Nation” and “Patti Cake$,” flopped. Other traditional bidders like Lionsgate and CBS Films have cut way back on Sundance purchases. That leaves Netflix and Amazon, which have come to dominate the festival, buying films like “The Big Sick” and “Mudbound” for $12 million a pop. But their rivalry is driving up prices in a way that may be unsustainable. Brooks Barnes