New Economic Reports Today Could Give Stock Market a Boost

Later today, we will see the release of the Core Retails Sales m/m report, which is expected to stay the same as it was last month. We will also hear statements from FOMC members.

Last week, the Fed spoke on economic factors and the overall state of the US economy, and they were hopeful that interest rate cuts would happen later this year. The Fed did mention that US inflation remained high and was not decreasing as swiftly as they had anticipated, but they also reported some positive economic data that shows slow and steady economic recovery in the United States.

Also coming out later today are reports for the Capacity Utilization Rate (expected to increase slightly) and Business Inventories m/m (expected to increase). These reports will shed some light on where inflation is going and if it is loosening or staying stubbornly high.

The US stock markets are trading slightly up today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 0.18%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.02% today, and the S&P 500 is up by 0.15%.

What to Expect from Today’s Economic Reports

This US economic data is vitally important, especially for stock market investors. It could easily sway the market one way or another, and we anticipate a slight boost later today and throughout the rest of the week as a result of the new data.

That will depend on whether the data tends to be positive or not and how it is perceived. The FED will likely make the data look as positive as possible, but it will be up to investors to decide how to interpret retail sales, business inventories, and additional reports.

Analyst predictions show that most of the data should point toward a slightly improving economy, but those predictions could be wrong, and investors should keep that in mind. US stock trading is likely to slow down until later today after the reports have been released.