Hi Folks.

Here's this week's forecast, and yes, it's actually this short.

MONDAY: The sole entry of today's calendar for the USA is Final Wholesale Inventories at 10:00 a.m. eastern. I can't think of a single instance in the last 20 years where traders used this number to drive price action. Pass

TUESDAY: We start with the NFIB Small Business Index number at 6:00 a.m. eastern. I mentioned before you can tell how important the market thinks a number is by the time of the release. No US traders are awake to trade this one, so hard pass. Then at 8:30 we get the Revised Nonfarm Productivity and Unit Labor Costs (q/q) numbers, which might as well come out at 6 a.m. with the NFIB number for all the market cares. Don't roll out of bed early for this one. Pass.

WEDNESDAY: Finally, a number worth trading. CPI in all its iterations drops at 8:30 a.m., and last week there were several articles in places like Barron's and the WSJ saying the Fed is taking continuing inflation into greater consideration in terms of rate cuts, one of which could happen next week on this day. But given inflation gauges keep creeping upwards, there may not be any cuts this time. Those articles were the Fed's way of letting everyone know in advance. But in any event, this is one of the last guaranteed tradeable numbers. Crude Oil is at 10:30, 10 year Bond Auction at 1:01 p.m. and the Federal Budget Imbalance number at 2:00 p.m. None of those are worth watching (unless you trade Crude Oil, which makes this a sort of High Holy Day for you).

THURSDAY: PPI follows CPI by one day as normal. And PPI rarely does as much as CPI because yesterday's numbers already told the story. PPI is like the second day of Powell's testimony before Congress. He already answered all their stupid questions the day before. Trading the rehashing on Day Two is not worth the effort for most traders. NatGas is at 10:30 (only of interest to NatGas traders) and the 30 year Bond auction is at 1:01 p.m. ( a trading non-event).

FRIDAY: Friday closes at 8:30 a.m. with Import Prices. Technically this is an inflation gauge, but not one the market really cares all that much about. But being Friday, and this being the only US entry on a calendar there haven't been many numbers all week, it could make at least a few small waves. But highly doubtful. And for those of you paying attention, I did not include any Fed Speak on the calendar simply because there was none on the calendar, at least on Saturday morning when I was typing this up. Thus a very brief calendar for the week.

See you back here next week when the Fed Meeting is scheduled.

Jeff