Monday's Market Minute: What To Watch As Rates Rise

Looks like there’s a few key data points to keep an eye on this week; let’s take a market minute to get ahead of what’s headed our way. First, the economic data you should keep an eye on: Retail Sales, CPI, Housing Start and Building Permits, Industrial Production, Beige Book, Housing Market Index, Consumer Sentiment, Philly Fed, and weekly Jobless Claims. The data due out this week will shed some light on inflation, jobs, and consumer spending habits.

We also have banks kicking off earnings season this week: keep an eye on JPMorgan Chase JPM, Citibank C, Wells Fargo & Co WFC, Bank of America Corp BAC, Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, and J B Hunt Transport Services Inc JBHT providing quarterly results. Retailers will provide further insight into pandemic spending trends.

I think with all the economic data and companies reporting quarterly results it will be important to watch a few existing trends we’ve seen play out to begin the year, like U.S. indices at or near all-time highs, Copper trending higher this year and holding above the 50-day moving average, the U.S. Dollar and the recent failed attempt to take out the 93-94 area, Beans and Corn trending up and near multi-month highs, and don’t forget about the Yen and how the decline is losing momentum in the short term at the very least.

The trends mentioned above should be closely watched in correlation to U.S. rates on the rise, as continuation of the move up we saw earlier this spring could derail them — so far, rates on the rise have yet to. The Fed has been clear they’re keeping a close eye on the “hard data,” which means as traders and investors so should we.

Photo by Jouwen Wang on Unsplash