| SUNDAY LOOK AHEAD | Iran is building a toll booth. The market is pricing a ceasefire. This week the economic data starts measuring which one is right. | | | | | Last week answered the diplomatic question clearly. Two extensions. No deal. Iran used the time to draft toll legislation and formalize a yuan-denominated clearance regime at the Strait. | This week the question shifts. The war's economic damage has been building for a month. It starts showing up in official data this week. Payrolls. Consumer confidence. Retail sales. Job openings. These are the readings that tell the Fed whether it has a supply shock or a recession on its hands. The answer changes everything about what policy can do. | Powell speaks Monday. Nonfarm payrolls land Friday. Between those two events, the market gets its first comprehensive look at what one month of $100 oil has done to the US economy. |
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| | | | | | The Fed's frame sets the week | Every data point this week gets interpreted through whatever Powell says Monday. | Six Fed officials speak this week: Powell, Williams, Goolsbee, Barr, Musalem, and Logan. Powell goes first. His framing on Monday shapes how traders hear every inflation and employment number that follows. | The question he cannot avoid is simple. Is this a supply shock the Fed looks through, or is it inflation the Fed has to fight? Those two answers require opposite policies. One keeps rate cuts on the table. The other puts hikes back in the room. | After last week, hike odds by year-end sat above 30%. Three Treasury auctions failed. The OECD raised its US inflation forecast to 4.2%. Powell's tone Monday tells you whether the committee is holding that line or moving. | Watch Signal | If Powell leans toward transitory, rate-sensitive names get a bid. If he leans toward persistent, the bond selloff that started last week finds a second leg. There is no neutral read available to him right now. |
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| | | | This is the week that shows the damage | Last week's jobless claims held at 210,000. Continuing claims hit their lowest level since May 2024. The labor market looked stable heading into this week. | This week tests whether that holds under a full month of $100 oil. | ADP Employment Change lands Wednesday. Initial jobless claims Thursday. Nonfarm payrolls Friday. That sequence covers the same ground from three different angles. ADP shows private sector hiring. Claims show whether layoffs are starting. Payrolls give the headline number the Fed uses to anchor its framework. | Goldman Sachs expects the oil shock to trim payrolls by 10,000 jobs per month and push unemployment to 4.6% by Q3. That forecast doesn't require a recession. It just requires the shock to persist. One month in, the data should start showing early signs of that path or push back against it. | JOLTs job openings arrive Tuesday. When openings fall faster than hiring, it means employers are getting cautious before they start cutting. That's the early warning signal worth watching alongside claims. | Investor Signal | The labor market has held through the first month. If this week's data starts showing cracks, the recession math at Moody's and Goldman gets harder to dismiss. If it holds again, the resilience narrative buys another week. |
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| | | | | | | RETAIL SALES AND CONSUMER CONFIDENCE |
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| | | The spending data arrives | Wednesday brings retail sales. Tuesday brings Conference Board consumer confidence. Friday's Michigan final sentiment rounds it out. | These three readings together show whether $4 gas and $5 diesel have started changing behavior. The preliminary Michigan number was the lowest of the year. Consumer confidence has been falling since the war began. Retail sales will show whether the mood has turned into action. | The mechanism is straightforward. When gas costs more, people spend less elsewhere. The lag between a fuel shock and a change in retail behavior is roughly four to six weeks. The war started at the end of February. That lag expires now. | Nike reports this week. It is the only earnings name worth watching on an otherwise quiet calendar. Nike carries meaningful exposure to consumer discretionary spending and to global supply chains running through affected regions. Its guidance will be the first major consumer brand read of this earnings cycle. What it says about forward demand matters more than the quarterly number. | Watch Signal | If retail sales fall alongside weak consumer confidence and a soft Michigan read, the consumer pillar holding up the market's earnings estimates starts to wobble. That conversation arrives in full during the week of April 6 when major earnings season begins. |
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| | | | The industrial data fills in | Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index lands Monday. Chicago PMI Tuesday. ISM Manufacturing PMI Wednesday. Balance of Trade Thursday. | Manufacturing data has been uneven all year. The war created two competing pressures at once. Energy input costs are rising, which pushes prices higher. But demand destruction from those same costs is slowing new orders. When both move in the same direction — higher prices, fewer orders — the data is sending a stagflation signal, not just an inflation one. | The trade data on Thursday adds a different layer. If the Strait disruption is showing up in import and export volumes, it confirms the supply chain damage has moved from energy into the broader goods economy. | Challenger job cuts also land Thursday. If major employers start announcing cuts in this environment, watch claims the following week. Business inventories arrive Wednesday. If inventories are building while sales soften, companies will start cutting orders. That sequence is how a supply shock becomes a demand shock. | Watch Signal | ISM Manufacturing PMI and the employment subindex arriving together Wednesday is the cleanest read of the week on whether the shock has moved from energy into the broader industrial economy. If new orders fall while prices paid rise, that's the stagflation signal in its clearest form. If the employment subindex drops alongside it, claims data will follow within weeks. Watch those two numbers together, not the headline alone. |
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| | | | The rate damage becomes visible | Case-Shiller home prices land Tuesday alongside the House Price Index. | Mortgage rates hit 6.38% last week, up from below 6% just a month ago. KB Home cut its full-year guidance. Mortgage applications fell 5% in a single week. The housing market was showing genuine signs of life in February. The rate move since then has reversed most of that. | The forward picture is already visible in KB Home's guidance and application data. But the price level matters because it tells you how much room buyers have to negotiate and whether sellers are starting to adjust. | Watch Signal | Case-Shiller measures the past. KB Home's guidance already told you the present. The number that matters this week is mortgage applications inside the MBA data. If applications fall again after last week's 5% drop, the spring selling season is over before it started. That removes one of the few remaining arguments for a second-half consumer recovery. |
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| | | | Last week the physical oil market and the bond market both concluded that the war lasts longer than equities are pricing. TotalEnergies bought 69 May cargoes. Three Treasury auctions failed. The OECD raised its inflation forecast by 140 basis points. | This week the economic data starts rendering a verdict. | If payrolls hold, consumer spending holds, and manufacturing stabilizes, the market's short-war thesis gets one more week of cover. If the jobs data cracks, retail falls, and confidence drops, the gap between what paper prices and what physical markets already decided starts closing fast. | Powell speaks Monday. Payrolls land Friday. Everything in between is evidence. | The market gets to decide which story it believes. This week it runs out of reasons to wait. |
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