On the U.S. economic calendar this week, we’ll get new figures on job openings/labor turnover, consumer price inflation, retail sales, industrial production and capacity utilization, and consumer sentiment.
The consensus forecast is that U.S. industrial production declined 0.3% in January following a 0.3% drop in December, while the capacity utilization rate is expected to have dipped to 76.8% in January from 77.0% in December. We’ll also get Fed Chair Jay Powell’s reports before Congress along with a number of speeches from Federal Reserve officials this week. Overseas, new industrial production numbers are due out for the EU, along with euro zone flash GDP and trade data. As the Financial Times reports, “the coronavirus will again dominate events, leaving its mark on much of the economic data and company results released this week. On Friday, the quarantine period expires for the first British nationals flown back from Wuhan in China.” Have a great week and don’t miss next week’s ReMA Market Report for a recap of the week’s key economic, trade, commodity, and scrap market highlights.
