Xavier Roger
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It’s been far from a slow week for economic news.
The global banking system is contending with the second and third-largest bank collapses in U.S. history that occurred within the span of two days, drawing eerie flashbacks to the 2008 financial crisis.
In the midst of that chaos, new employment data was released on Friday. The Labor Department reported U.S. employers added 311,000 jobs in February, a slowdown from January’s more than half a million job gains. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6% from 3.4%.
And today we’ll get a fresh read on inflation with February’s consumer price index report that’s due this morning.
The latest employment report and the forthcoming inflation data will be scrutinized by Federal Reserve officials who will meet for the second time this year next week to decide what to do with interest rates.
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Follow along for live updates:
CPI data release time
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the CPI report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Dow futures
Futures trading for the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved higher leading up to the report’s release. The index has been volatile in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank fallout.
FRC stock
Shares of First Republic Bank are up nearly 50% in premarket trading. The bank has taken a big hit in recent days as depositors pull money from their accounts.
Expected CPI
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict prices rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis for the second consecutive month. On an annual basis, they estimate a 6% rise in prices.
Current inflation rate
The current rate of inflation is 6.4% on annual basis.
Next Fed meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for March 21-22.
NY Fed inflation expectations
Americans think inflation will be at 4.2% a year from now, according to median estimates from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s survey on consumer expectations published yesterday. That’s 0.8 percentage points less than the annual rate of inflation Americans predicted last month.
In three years they predict annual inflation will be nearly at the Fed’s 2% target level of inflation.
When is the next inflation report?
The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, comes out on March 31. The next CPI report is due on April 12.
Core CPI
Core CPI is a measure of the change in consumer prices excluding energy and food which are generally the most volatile components of CPI. Economists expect core CPI for February to drop to 5.5% on an annual basis from 5.6% in January.
Elisabeth Buchwald is a personal finance and markets correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on Twitter @BuchElisabeth and sign up for our Daily Money newsletter here
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