Investors will be paying close attention to statements from Federal Reserve officials this week as Chairman Jay Powell is scheduled speak at a Fed conference in Boston on Tuesday before testifying at the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
Several other high-ranking Fed officials will be speaking this week and the minutes of the last FOMC meeting are due out on Wednesday. The consensus has been the Fed will ease rates at their meeting later this month, although Friday’s strong jobs report may discourage the Fed from doing so, hence the increased focus on this week’s speeches. As for economic releases due out this week, we’ll get new U.S. reports on job openings and labor turnover, consumer credit, initial unemployment claims, and consumer and producer price indexes. The consensus forecasts are for flat (0.0%) monthly readings on both CPI and PPI. China also releases inflation and trade data this week, while Germany and the euro zone report on industrial production. Have a great week and don’t miss next week’s ISRI Market Report for a recap of the week’s key economic, trade, commodity, and scrap market highlights!
