Reports on consumer and producer level inflation will be the big focus in markets in the week ahead. Investors will also be watching Federal Reserve speakers for clues on how close the central bank is to announcing plans to taper its bond buying program.
Friday's strong July jobs report with 943,000 new payrolls encouraged some market pros to expect the Fed to make an announcement on the wind down of its program as soon as September.
The Consumer Price Index is the most important inflation report and it is expected to show a 4.3% inflation pace in July year over year, down from 4.5% in June, when it is released Wednesday. The question with rising inflation is whether it is a temporary phenomena as the Fed says, or a more persistent problem that will force the Fed to move forward to change policy.
One chief market strategist said he expects stocks to "grind higher" as investors digest this process.
Post a Comment