A busy morning kicks off with another inflation report.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to say that producer prices climbed 0.4% month-over-month in January, rebounding from a steeper-than-expected decline of 0.5% the previous month.
Year-over-year, prices paid by wholesalers are anticipated to jump 5.4%, down sharply from a 6.2% spike in December and the seventh straight month of cooler growth.
If you exclude food and energy costs, core producer prices are anticipated to rise 0.3% monthly in January, up from 0.1% the prior month. Year-over-year, look for growth in core PPI to cool to 4.9% in January.
The Labor Department will report how many workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. Expectations are for 200,000, up 4,000 from the previous week’s slightly higher-than-expected tally of 196,000.
Continuing claims, which track the total number of workers collecting unemployment benefits, are expected to edge up to 1.695 million, the highest since late December.
Also the Commerce Department is expected to say that the number of new homes under construction in January fell 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.360 million.
Permits for future construction, a good gauge of upcoming housing activity, are anticipated to rise 1.0% to 1.35 million in January, rebounding slightly from December’s pace of 1.337 million.
And the Philadelphia Federal Reserve is out with its index of manufacturing activity for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware. It’s expected to inch up to -7.4 in February, remaining in contraction for a sixth month.