What to Look Out for in Economic Data This Week (October 19-23)

A relatively light week on the economic calendar opens with home construction and sales data likely to confirm what major media outlets are calling a crisis for a market critical to the overall economy.

The official "blackout period" around the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting runs from Saturday, October 17, through Thursday, October 29. So we'll hear nothing from Federal Reserve officials.

We'll see weekly jobless claims on Thursday, while Friday morning features survey results from services and manufacturing segments, as well as consumers, about the economy and inflation.

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Economic reports we're watching

Friday, October 23: S&P Global Flash Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), S&P Global Flash Manufacturing PMI and University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (final): The common thread here is cost pressure, as in "it's rising," for both consumers and businesses. That's what a red-hot September CPI report says and a white-hot September PPI seem to confirm.

Read on to see the entire weekly economic calendar of the most important upcoming economic reports scheduled to be released in the next several days. At times, we provide expanded previews and recaps for select reports.

Please check back often. This economic calendar is updated regularly. Bolded reports are those considered more noteworthy. All reporting times are in Eastern Time.

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Monday (10/19)

Tuesday (10/20)

Wednesday (10/21)

There are no economic reports scheduled for release on Wednesday, October 21.

Thursday (10/22)

Friday (10/23)

It's Inflation Expectations Friday

It's the first look at the October landscape from the perspective of services and manufacturing managers, and it's the final look from consumers.

Regarding the services and manufacturing PMIs, we've been in "expansion" territory for months now. As for consumers, they just keep spending, even though gas prices are muddling the data.

And that's the thing: Investors, traders and speculators will tune in to see what everybody's saying about "price stability." Policymakers will too.

The Fed is so interested in what people say about the issue that its most important branch conducts its own monthly interviews. You might even say the central bank uses the federal funds rate to try to manage expectations around its 2% inflation target.

The September iteration of the New York Fed's Survey of Consumer Expectations, released on October 7, showed households' inflation expectations for both the short and medium terms ticked higher, but remained stable over the long-term horizon.

As Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said in his keynote address at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in August, "It's the Fed's job to make sure that inflation expectations do not get unanchored."

Of course, everybody wants to know where interest rates are going. Let's start with a different question: Are inflation expectations still anchored?

Reporting schedules are provided Forex Factory and MarketWatch.

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