PANews reported on February 15 that this week's CPI report showed an increase in US consumer inflation. Fed Chairman Powell admitted that more work needs to be done to eliminate price pressures in the economy, and expectations for rate cuts have cooled, but then weak retail sales data brought some hope. Wall Street's ability to handle dramatic events has been exercised again. Facts have once again proved that traders are up to the task, and in the end the market as a whole was not greatly affected. The following are the key points that the market will focus on in the new week:
At 22:30 on Monday, Harker, 2026 FOMC voting member and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, will deliver a speech;
At 23:20 on Monday, Federal Reserve Board Governor Bowman will deliver a speech;
At 23:20 on Tuesday, Daly, 2027 FOMC voting member and President of the San Francisco Fed, will deliver a speech;
At 03:00 on Thursday, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its January monetary policy meeting;
At 21:30 on Thursday, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending February 15 and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for February;
At 22:35 on Thursday, Goolsbee, 2025 FOMC voting member and president of the Chicago Fed, will deliver a speech;
At 01:05 on Friday, 2025 FOMC voting member and St. Louis Fed President Moussalem will deliver a speech at the New York Economic Club;
At 22:45 on Friday, the preliminary value of the US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI/Services PMI for February will be released;
At 23:00 on Friday, the final value of the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index in the United States for February and the final value of the one-year inflation rate forecast in the United States for February will be released.
Investors are unlikely to pay much attention to the Fed's January meeting minutes next week after Powell's semi-annual testimony and January inflation data. So the focus may be on the S&P Global PMI data for February next Friday. Any PMI below 50 could put pressure on the dollar and push up gold. A Bank of America survey of more than 50 fund managers around the world in February showed that betting on a stronger dollar is still seen as the most crowded position among interest rate and currency traders. Nearly half of investors still expect the dollar exchange rate to peak in the first quarter of this year.
