The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that “China’s economic growth decelerated to its slowest pace in decades, weakened by trade tensions with the U.S. and businesses that held back from making big investments despite encouragement from Beijing.

New U.S. economic releases due out this week will cover retail sales, industrial production, housing starts & building permits, consumer sentiment, and the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators.

As expected, monetary policy was squarely in focus last week as expectations for new stimulus measures were generally confirmed. The European Central Bank released the minutes of its last meeting and, as the Wall Street Journal reported,

Perhaps the most exciting commodity news out last week was the opening of registration for the 2019 ISRI Commodities Roundtable Forum to be held in Chicago from September 11-13, 2019.

For the week ending July 8, 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that average on-highway diesel fuel prices in the United States were up $0.013 per gallon from the preceding week to $3.055/gallon.