With oil moving lower in reaction to hints of a higher-than-expected rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the market focus this week will be on U.S. inflation, but it should be a noisy week given the coming trove of influential data.
Crude oil prices lost ground after Fed Chair Jerome Powell offered something of a downbeat assessment on the fight against lingering inflation. Powell told the Senate Banking Committee last week that “economic data have come in stronger than expected,” suggesting the bank may revert to a hawkish increase of 50 basis points, double the rate of its previous rate hike.
That left China’s economic growth target of an easy-to-reach 5 percent, announced during last week’s annual session of its National People’s Congress, in the rear-view mirror. Bill Weatherburn, a commodities analyst at Capital Economics in London, said focus nonetheless remains on the balance between Chinese and U.S. economic momentum.
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