The Week Ahead

The European Commission is expected this week to unveil a plan for revamping how technology companies are taxed on their digital revenue. The proposal is the latest push in a campaign by Brussels to more strongly regulate the titans of the tech industry — particularly dominant players like Amazon and Apple that have drawn scrutiny for their efforts to maximize profits by recording earnings in lower tax jurisdictions like Ireland and Luxembourg. The move comes as criticism persists that the European Union unfairly focuses on U.S. companies, an accusation that Brussels denies.

— PRASHANT S. RAO

Investors will be watching to see whether the online file storage company Dropbox successfully goes public this week. If it does, they’ll want to see what Wall Street’s response says about the prospects for other “unicorns,” the startups valued at more than $1 billion by the private investors that have financed their growth. Although privately valued at $10 billion, Dropbox recently set an initial price range for its shares at $16 to $18, for a value of $7 billion to $7.9 billion. One question is whether Dropbox, and others that may follow it to market, can avoid the fate of Snap, the company behind the Snapchat app, which has struggled to stay above its $17-a-share offering price since going public a year ago, and the meal-delivery startup Blue Apron, which went public at $10 a share in June and is now trading well below that.

Federal Reserve policymakers are set to meet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss interest rates, the first such session with Jerome H. Powell as the central bank’s new chairman. With the job market tight and inflation picking up only gradually, the Fed is widely expected to raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point in what is likely to be the first of three rate increases this year. After the meeting, Powell will hold his first news conference in his new role, where observers will be listening closely for any suggestion that the Fed might depart from its anticipated path, and, if so, why.

The steep tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump on imported aluminum and steel are to take effect Friday. Like much else coming out of the White House these days, how strict that deadline is — and to which countries the tariffs will apply — is a somewhat open question. Mexico and Canada have been given exemptions from the duties while negotiations continue over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the Trump administration wants to alter significantly. Trump has hinted that Australia and other nations with close ties to the United States could also get a reprieve, setting off a rush by other nations as well as foreign companies and their U.S. partners, for similar treatment. Those favorable arrangements could be worth billions of dollars.