This week’s new data, what to focus on – companies’ reports, Jerome Powell’s speech, inflation rates

Grand Teton National Park is about to become a center stage in economic and financial fields this week. Jackson Hole valley is again home to the economic symposium held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which involves representatives of the central banks and the Department of the Treasury, as well as heads of large corporations and top economists.

The main event of the symposium will be the speech of Jerome Powell,  the head of the Fed since 2018. Investors and other market participants are waiting for the speech to shed some light on the results of the proceedings, which might give clues about the further actions of the US central bank. They are mainly interested in analyzing the speech to conclude whether the rates will be raised by 0.75% again, or the pace will slow down, and the rates will be raised by 0.50% on September 21.

According to opinions of major economists, including Capital Economics senior economist Andrew Hunter, the current economic circumstances lead to a possible raise by 0.50% in September. The conclusion was made on the basis of recent information on inflation pressure, which was reported to be mildly softened in July. Although the July jobs report also stated a lack of softening of the labor market, specialists consider the facts to be balancing each other. So, according to Hunter, Powell won’t likely alter the expectation during his speech on Friday.

Jerome Powell’s speech will be streamed online for the first time in history. The precise time of release is 10:00 a.m. ET on Friday.

Besides the Powell’s speech, there will be more significant releases this week.

The latest updated data on PCE inflation, which is the preferred measure of the Fed, will be published just one hour and a half before the speech of Jerome Powell on Friday. It’s release time on Friday is 08:30 a.m. ET.

At the same time, the update on consumer sentiment index prepared by the University of Michigan will be released simultaneously with the Powell’s speech. The new data on service sector activity will also be highlighted.

There are also some significant releases among the new company reports this week. Although many companies are already done with reporting earnings this season, there still is some information for investors to be considered. So, this week, the updates are expected from dollar store operators Dollar General and Dollar Tree, as well as from Nvidia, salesforce.com, and Ulta Beauty.